John Stubblefield, tenor saxophonist, is one of the most innovative and powerful soloists of post-Coltrane’s generation. He collaborated with a wide range of avant-garde and modern jazz giants, including Charles Mingus, whose big-band Stubblefield also led. Born in Little Rock, AK on February 4, 1945. Stubblefield studied piano at first, and then switched to saxophone when he was a teenager. He was raised in a segregated African-American neighborhood. His exposure to the music of gospel and itinerant blues musicians influenced his deeply personal soloing. (Don Byas, a Basie alum and saxophonist, was another huge inspiration. Stubblefield, then 17, joined the local R
