Jazz breaking news: James Moody Dies After Brave Fight Against Cancer

Moody, as he was universally known by family, friends and fans alike, had been suffered from pancreatic cancer and had been operated on in February remaining in hospital until May before returning home after he and his wife took the decision that he would not undergo chemotherapy or radiography treatment.

Moody’s impact on jazz dates back to the immediate post-Second World War years when his improvisation on the popular song that became a hit more than a decade before when it was sung by Frances Langford in the film Every Night At Eight, made his name.

The popularity of Moody’s improvisation led to a pop hit for King Pleasure later with lyrics by Eddie Jefferson and the creative longevity of ‘Moody’s Mood’ has led to its interpretation by a host of singers from Sarah Vaughan to Van Morrison. The labyrinthine, gentling consoling romantic flourishes of the solo take on an intimacy that contrast with the formality of the original song it was based on.

As Jefferson’s words intuitively interpreted Moody, almost explaining his overall approach: “There’s music all around me, crazy music/ Music that keeps calling me so very close to you/Turns me your slave.”

Moody was also closely associated with Dizzy Gillespie for much of his life. “Playing with Moody is like playing with a continuation of myself,” Gillespie once said to which Moody later responded “I felt the same way with him. He was my mentor, my teacher, my best friend, and my brother.” His close affinity with the bebop avatar began when he auditioned for Gillespie and played with the 1946 version of Gillespie’s celebrated big band at the Spotlite on 52nd St in York City, “Swing Street” alongside Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke and Ray Brown.

After Dizzy’s death in 1993 Moody took his place in the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band conducted by Slide Hampton. I had the pleasure of hearing him stand out among the many virtuosos in the band, that included much younger guns such as Antonio Hart, in front of tens of thousands of people at the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland just four years ago.

A regular and popular visitor to Ronnie Scott’s club in London for many successful residencies Moody had the cool demeanour of jazzmen of his generation who oozed effortless control on the bandstand of the best jazz clubs they found themselves performing in. Moody brought a strong personality to the saxophone and when he took the microphone to sing as well it all added to a direct connection with the listener that fewe could hope to achieve.

Moody as well as working with the big band also continued to record until very late in his career. Moody 4B, featuring longtime musical partners Kenny Barron, Todd Coolman and Lewis Nash was nominated for a Grammy just last week in the best jazz instrumental album category, his fourth such nomination over the years.

Born partially deaf in Savannah, Georgia on 25 March 1925 and raised in Newark in New Jersey, Moody was brought up by his mother who worked in a local insurance company. His father was a musician but Moody did not meet him until he was a grown man. As a result of his childhood disability Moody attended a school for the deaf before moving on to Arts High in Newark and was later drafted by the Air Force in 1943 where in a segregated training centre in North Carolina he joined the “unofficial Negro band” for three years, but understandably felt the injustice of segregation acutely. He could fight for his country but not eat in the same restaurants as his fellow airmen.

Moody had an attractively melodic approach to the tenor saxophone more so than some other bebop players and partly because of this, his growing name achieved through his work with Dizzy, and also his overt bluesiness he quickly became a name on the circuit. Soon he recorded his first album as a leader, featuring Art Blakey and Chano Pozo, but in 1949, facing down an incipient drink problem, he left the States to live in Paris staying there for three years. He performed with Miles Davis and Tadd Dameron at the Paris International Festival de Jazz during the year of his arrival and crucially later in Sweden with some local musicians, also in 1949, took part in an unlikely recording session for Metronome that saw him stand out playing alto on ‘I’m In The Mood For Love’ the interpretation that would make his name. Three years later after Eddie Jefferson unbeknownst to Moody had put lyrics to the solo, singer King Pleasure turned it into a major pop hit, becoming known of course as ‘Moody’s Mood for Love.’

Back in the States Moody’s star was in the ascendant and his group, now a septet, toured in a revue with Dinah Washington that featured arrangements by the then young trumpeter and arranger Quincy Jones. In the 1960s Moody rejoined Gillespie but the following decade he took a pit job for more than seven years with the Las Vegas Hilton Orchestra forsaking the road for some stability while he helped raise his daughter, playing in shows headlined by stars such as Bill Cosby and Elvis Presley.

After divorcing in 1979, Moody kickstarted his jazz career and recorded for RCA Novus in the mid-1980s also marrying San Diego real estate agent Linda McGowan in 1988, with Dizzy Gillespie his best man. More albums for Novus followed and the fourth one Honey was named for Linda just one small indication of the new love he had found relatively late in life.

The latter part of Moody’s career from the 90s on was again with Gillespie and his United Nation Orchestra, but Moody continued to bring out his own records and did film work including an appearance on Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He received many awards during his lifetime including the prestigious 1998 Jazz Masters Fellowship Award granted by the National Endowment for The Arts and a decade ago an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. Moody also liked to give back and he and Linda founded a James Moody Scholarship Fund for Newark Youth in Moody’s hometown to help “talented youth where the idea of going to college wasn’t even on their radar.”

It’s fitting that the last track on the double album 4B on IPO records recorded two years ago and just released is called ‘The Farewell’. An optimistic sounding swinger full of fun and that certain bounce the tune represents the essence of what Moody was all about and it was his way of communicating via bebop, the blues and a belief in the romance of life through music, that made Moody one of the most popular figures in jazz and why he will be so fondly remembered.

James Moody is survived by his wife, Linda, daughter Michelle Bagdanove, a brother Lou Watters, sons Patrick, Regan, and Danny McGowan, four grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

– Stephen Graham

Photo: Tim Dickeson