Gary Bartz


Gary Bartz is an American jazz saxophonist.

Biography

Bartz studied at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop. He worked as a sideman with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In 1968, he was a member of McCoy Tyner's band Expansions.
In mid-1970, he joined Miles Davis' band, performing live at the Isle Of Wight festival in August and at a series of December dates at The Cellar Door club in Washington, D.C. Portions of these shows were initially released on the 1971 Live-Evil album, with the entire six performance/four night run eventually released in full on the 2005 Cellar Door Sessions box set. He later formed the band Ntu Troop, which combined jazz, funk, and soul.
Bartz was awarded the BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award, which was presented at a special ceremony at The Kennedy Center. In the liner notes to the album The Red and Orange Poems, jazz critic Stanley Crouch called Bartz "one of the very best who has ever picked up the instrument".
In 2019, Revive Music and Bartz celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his "Another Earth" album at Winter Jazzfest in NYC alongside original member Pharoah Sanders. Later that year, in collaboration with , he celebrated the same album at the North Sea and Newport Jazz Festivals with original member Charles Tolliver and Nasheet Waits, alongside Ravi Coltrane.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Joe Chambers
at Jazz Alley, Seattle, in 2012
With the Rance Allen Group
With Gene Ammons
With Roy Ayers
With Cindy Blackman
With Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
With Donald Brown
With Kenny Burrell
With Donald Byrd
With George Cables
With Norman Connors
With Miles Davis
With Ray Drummond
  • Vignettes
With Antonio Hart
With Louis Hayes
  • The Crawl
With Heads of State
  • Search for Peace
  • Four in One
With Phyllis Hyman
With Barney McAll
  • Release the Day
With Jackie McLean
  • Ode to Super
With Grachan Moncur III
  • Exploration
With Alphonse Mouzon
  • Virtue
With Rare Silk
  • New Weave
With Max Roach
  • Members, Don't Git Weary
With Wallace Roney
  • A Place in Time
With Pharoah Sanders
  • Deaf Dumb Blind
With Woody Shaw
  • Blackstone Legacy
  • For Sure!
  • United
With Sphere
  • Sphere – Verve
With Charles Tolliver
  • Paper Man
With Bob Thiele Collective
  • Lion Hearted
With Leon Thomas
  • Precious Energy
With Malachi Thompson
  • Rising Daystar
  • Blue Jazz
With McCoy Tyner
  • Expansions
  • Cosmos
  • Extensions
  • Asante
  • Sama Layuca
  • Focal Point
  • Looking Out
  • Dimensions
  • McCoy Tyner and the Latin All-Stars
  • Illuminations
With Robert Walter
  • Spirit of '70
With Chip White
With John Lee & Gerry Brown
With The Midnight Hour '