HAMIET BLUIETT

Born in 1940, Hamiet Bluiett was raised in Lovejoy, Illinois, an historic black community near East St. Louis that served as a stop for the Underground Railroad. He began learning music at the age of four from his aunt, Mattie Chambers, a choral director of the A.M.E. church. By the time he was nine, he was taking clarinet lessons from George Hudson, leader of one of the most influential territory bands whose alums included Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins and Ahmad Jamal. Bluiett attended Southern Illinois University where he studied flute, clarinet and baritone saxophone.

Bluiett came of musical age in St. Louis during the 1960s. He was active in the St. Louis Black Artists Group (BAG), a multi-media artists’ collective like Chicago’s AACM. Members included Lester and Joseph Bowie, Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake.

Hamiet moved to New York in 1969 and began to perform with Olatunji, Sam Rivers and others on the jazz scene. In 1972 he joined Charles Mingus’ big band and then two successive Mingus’ quintets, the latter of which featured Don Pullen, George Adams, and Dannie Richmond, Bluiett worked with Mingus for two years, helping Mingus crystallize some of the finest music of his last years.

Bluiett performed and recorded as a sideman with Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Band), Julius Hemphill and others, and began recording on his own in 1976. That same year Bluiett formed the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Oliver Lake, and Hemphill.

He was the top baritone saxophonist in the 1991 and 1992 Downbeat International Critics Poll and won the 1992 Special Achievement Award from SESAC, the international music publishing rights organization.

In addition to his work playing, composing and producing for the World Saxophone Quartet, Bluiett lead his own ensembles, including Bluiett’s Barbeque Band, The Clarinet Family, the Bluiett 4, the Bluiett 3 and the Bluiett Sextet. He released numerous recordings as a leader, as well as with other artists including Charles Mingus, Lester Bowie, Randy Weston and Eddie Jefferson.