Illinois Jacquet

Illinois Jacquet, a legendary tenor saxophonist whose solo in the song “Flying Home” became a jazz standard, died on July 22 of a heart attack. He was 81.
Born Jean-Baptiste Jacquet in Broussard, La., he was nicknamed Illinois after the Indian word “Illiniwek,” which means superior man. Raised in Houston, Texas, Jacquet tap-danced and played the drums in his father’s band until a music teacher handed him an alto saxophone. After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles and switched to the tenor sax.
Jacquet helped to define the Texas tenor sound. Biting on his reed, he could extend the saxophone’s upper range by two full octaves. He was only 19 years old when he played the tenor sax solo on Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home,” a performance he likened to a religious experience.
In a career spanning more than six decades, Jacquet accompanied many famous musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He played in bands led by Count Basie and Cab Calloway, then formed the Illinois Jacquet Big Band in 1981.
During his heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, Jacquet recorded more than 300 songs, but he was best known for the hits “Black Velvet,” “Robbins’ Nest” and “Port of Rico.” He also appeared in the Lena Horne movie, “Stormy Weather,” and in the short film, “Jammin’ the Blues,” which received an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Jacquet toured extensively in Europe and taught at Harvard University.
In 1992, he was the subject of the documentary, “Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story.” A year later, he performed a duet with Bill Clinton during the president’s inaugural ball. His final performance took place on July 16 at Lincoln Center in New York.
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