| Junior Mance | |
|---|---|
 Mance in 1980 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. |
| Born | (1928-10-10)October 10, 1928 Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | January 17, 2021(2021-01-17) (aged 92) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz,hard bop,Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instrument | Piano |
| Years active | 1947–2016 |
| Labels | Riverside,Capitol,Atlantic |
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021),[1] known asJunior Mance, was an Americanjazz pianist and composer.[2][3]
Mance was born inEvanston, Illinois. When he was five years old, Mance started playing piano on anupright in his family's home in Evanston.[4] His father, Julian, taught Mance to playstride piano andboogie-woogie.[4] With his father's permission, Mance had his first professional gig in Chicago at the age of ten when his upstairs neighbor, a saxophone player, needed a replacement for a pianist who was ill.[4] Mance was known to his family as "Junior" (to differentiate him from his father), and the nickname stuck with him throughout his professional career.[4]
Mance's mother encouraged him to study medicine at nearbyNorthwestern University in Evanston, but agreed to let him attendRoosevelt College in Chicago instead.[4] Despite urging him to enroll inpre-med classes, Mance signed up for music classes, though he found that jazz was forbidden by the faculty, and did not finish out the year.[4]
Mance first played withGene Ammons in Chicago in 1947 while he was enrolled at Roosevelt. He recorded with Ammons on September 23 that year forAladdin Records,[5] and they worked in New York City during a week when Mance was suspended from school (having been caught playing jazz in a practice room).[4] While on tour,Lester Young came to see Ammons play at the Congo Lounge in Chicago in 1949.[4] Young's piano player,Bud Powell,[6] had missed his flight to Chicago, and Young asked Mance to replace him, thinking Mance was a fill-in rather than Ammons' regular pianist.[4] Having just been offeredStan Getz's chair in theWoody Herman band, Ammons was "delighted" to let Mance go.[4] Mance recorded with Young forSavoy Records that year, and reunited with Ammons to record withSonny Stitt forPrestige Records in 1950.[4][5]
The U.S. Army drafted Mance in 1951.[4] Two weeks before shipping out to Korea from basic training,Julian "Cannonball" Adderley helped Mance score a position in the 36th Army Band atFort Knox, Kentucky, where he remained as the company clerk.[7]
Discharged from the Army in 1953, Mance immediately started working at the Bee Hive Jazz Club in Chicago, completing the house rhythm section withIsrael Crosby (bass) and Buddy Smith (drums).[6] During his year at the Bee Hive, Mance backed musicians such asCharlie Parker,[6]Coleman Hawkins,[8]Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis,[6] and Sonny Stitt.[7]
Charlie Parker encouraged Mance to move to New York, which he did after saving money from working nearly a year at the Bee Hive.[6] In 1954, Mance was asked to record withDinah Washington afterWynton Kelly was drafted.[6] Mance toured with Washington over the next two years and learnedaccompaniment technique from Washington's arranger,Jimmy Jones.[6]EmArcy released two LPs,Dinah Jams andJam Session, from a live session recorded August 14–15, 1954 inLos Angeles with Mance, Washington,Clifford Brown,Clark Terry,Maynard Ferguson,Herb Geller,Harold Land,Richie Powell,Keter Betts,George Morrow, andMax Roach.[6]
In 1956, Mance joined Cannonball Adderley's first civilian band, along withNat Adderley,Sam Jones, andJimmy Cobb.[8] They made several recordings for EmArcy/Mercury over the next two years.[7] Dinah Washington hired this group to back her onIn the Land of Hi-Fi, and Mance also recorded sessions withJohnny Griffin,James Moody, andWilbur Ware forArgo Records andRiverside during this period.[6]
After the Adderley group broke up for lack of gigs,[7] Adderley became part of theMiles Davis Sextet, while Mance joinedDizzy Gillespie's band, once again replacing Wynton Kelly.[8] Mance backed Gillespie andLouis Armstrong during a televised performance of the song "Umbrella Man" onCBS in January 1959.[8]
Verve Records founderNorman Granz offered Mance his first recording date as leader during one of his sessions with Dizzy Gillespie.[8] Granz set Mance up with bassistRay Brown, and Gillespie's drummerLex Humphries completed the trio, which recorded together in April 1959.[8] His debut recordJunior was released by Verve later that year. A busy release schedule followed, as Mance went on to record six albums for Jazzland/Riverside in the early '60s, and joined the Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis/Johnny Griffin quintet which released seven albums with Mance during 1960–1961.[7]
Mance recorded for major labelsCapitol (1964–1965) andAtlantic (1966–1970), including one date featuring Mance onharpsichord (Harlem Lullaby, 1966) and afusion album (With a Lotta Help from My Friends, 1970).[7] During a recording session withBenny Carter for the soundtrack to the filmA Man Called Adam in 1965, Carter and Mance took in all three sets of anOrnette Coleman performance at theFive Spot Café. Mance cited Carter's broad-mindedness as an inspiration for his own stylistic explorations.[8] Hansen House published his bookHow to Play Blues Piano in June 1967.
Junior Mance continued to record and perform during the next three decades, albeit at a less intense pace. He made several duet recordings with bassist Martin Rivera, and two solo piano recordings for Canadian labelSackville Records,Junior Mance Special andJubilation.[7] He also taught atThe New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music for 23 years, countingBrad Mehldau andLarry Goldings among his students before retiring in 2011.[7]
From 1990 to 2009 Mance was part of a group called "100 Gold Fingers" which frequently toured Japan.[9] The rotating line-up of all star pianists[10] includedToshiko Akiyoshi,Monty Alexander,Geri Allen,Lynne Arriale,Kenny Barron,Joanne Brackeen,Ray Bryant,Bill Charlap,Cyrus Chestnut,Gerald Clayton,João Donato,Tommy Flanagan,Don Friedman,Benny Green,Barry Harris,Gene Harris,Hank Jones,Duke Jordan,Roger Kellaway,John Lewis,Harold Mabern,Dave McKenna,Marian McPartland,Mulgrew Miller,Dado Moroni,Hod O'Brien,Eric Reed,Ted Rosenthal,Renee Rosnes,Mal Waldron,Cedar Walton,James Williams, andChihiro Yamanaka, with bassistBob Cranshaw and eitherAlan Dawson orGrady Tate on drums.[9]
Mance and his wife Gloria formed their own record label, JunGlo, in 2007.[7] Their first release,Live At Café Loup, featured Mance in a trio with Hidé Tanaka on bass and Jackie Williams on drums, with guest vocalistJosé James. Drummer Kim Garey later took over from Williams, with the addition of saxophonistsRyan Anselmi andAndrew Hadro. Mance toured the U.S., Italy, Japan, and Israel in 2013 accompanied by Tanaka and violinist Michi Fuji (a former New School student of Mance's.) This Mance trio held their Sunday night residency at Café Loup until his retirement in the spring of 2016.
He died in New York of a brain hemorrhage that he had suffered after a fall, aged 92. He had also been suffering from Alzheimer's.[1]
WithNat Adderley
WithGene Ammons
WithDizzy Gillespie
WithJohnny Griffin
WithJimmy Scott
WithSonny Stitt
WithClark Terry
WithDinah Washington
| WithJoe Williams
With others
|
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
