Jerome Richardson

Biography

Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician and woodwind player. He is cited as playing one of the earliest jazz flute recordings with his work on the 1949 Quincy Jones arranged song "Kingfish".

Career

Starting from the age of eight, he first played alto saxophone, taking Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Willie Smith as models. Local band leaders Ben Watkins and Willy Baranco took interest in him and by the age of fourteen, he was playing professionally around northern California, later touring with Saunders King and having a brief engagement with the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. He took up the flute in 1940 and studied music at San Francisco State College. Enlisted in the navy, he worked under Marshal Royal in the 45-piece regimental band that was attached to the Navy's preflight training school for pilots at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. After his discharge in 1945, he joined Lionel Hampton`s band from 1949 to 1951, during which time he recorded on flute and took up the tenor sax. He started his own combo back in the San Francisco Bay area, in a group that included bassist George Morrow. He then joined Earl Hines`s small band on the road before moving to New York in 1954. There, he played with Oscar Pettiford`s group and at Minton's Playhouse, fronting his own group (with Hank Jones, Wendell Marshall and Shadow Wilson) and doing combo work with Kenny Burrell. He also worked at the Roxy Theatre (New York City) in their R&B productions.
Richardson was the regular saxophonist in the Oscar Pettiford band that one night, being busy with studio recording work, saw him late for the gig at Cafe Bohemia where Cannonball Adderley and brother Nat Adderley were present in the audience. Cannonball had taken his part and was inadvertently discovered as a result.
Richardson was versed in a variety of instruments in the saxophone, clarinet, and flute families. Early in his career he even sang rock and roll blues vocals. He was an in demand studio musician for television and stage, as well as a session musician in groups outside of jazz. He played with Quincy Jones, Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine, the Earl Hines small band, Oscar Pettiford, Charles Mingus, Kenny Burrell and The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (of which he was a founding member).
Richardson was born in Sealey, Texas but grew up in Oakland, California (through adopted parents), and died in Englewood, New Jersey, of heart failure at the age of 79.

As leader

Midnight Oil (New Jazz, 1959)
Roamin' with Richardson (New Jazz, 1959)
Going to the Movies (United Artists, 1962)
Groove Merchant (Verve, 1967)
Jazz Station Runaway (TCB, 1997)
Groovin' High in Barcelona, with the Tete Montoliu Trio (Fresh Sound Records, 2021)