Remembering Bunky Green
April 23, 1933 – March 1, 2025
A tribute to the alto-saxophonist and educator
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Alto-saxophonist Bunky Green passed away on March 1, 2025 at the age of 91.
He was born on Apr. 23, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, gaining early experience playing alto at a local club, The Brass Rail.
Shortly after coming to New York, Green had a stint with Charles Mingus.
He soon moved to Chicago where he became a fixture on the jazz scene, developing an original sound based on bebop but looking ahead, and later becoming an influence and inspiration for Steve Coleman and Greg Osby.
Green made his first of 12 recordings as a leader in 1960 (Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath and Wynton Kelly were some of his sidemen) and along the way he recorded with Eddie Harris, Fontella Bass, Sonny Stitt, Ben Sidran, Elvin Jones, and (in 2010) Rudresh Mahanthappa.
Bunky Green would be better known today but he performed less often after the 1960s, becoming a jazz educator including teaching at Chicago State University (1972-89) and directing the jazz studies program at the University of North Florida from the 1990s until he retired in 2011.
74 at the time, Bunky Green digs into the song “Little Girl I’ll Miss You” in 2007 and plays an adventurous solo.
-Scott Yanow
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