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Article: Phil Urso, 'cool jazz' master of tenor sax.(Business)
- Article from:
- Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
- Article date:
- April 10, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Rocky Mountain News. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Thomson Scientific by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Bill Gallo, Special to the Rocky
Inside the jazz fraternity, Phil Urso was regarded as one of the great tenor saxophonists.
Miles Davis, who handed out compliments like they were $1,000 bills, once told him that he played the most beautiful harmonies of anyone he'd ever worked with.
When Mr. Urso was on tour in 1957 with the Birdland All Stars, he and saxophone legend Lester Young would sit in the back of the band bus, drinking gin and trading ideas. Young started calling him "Little Prez" because Mr. Urso's solos, like his own, had become masterpieces of understatement - whispery, thoughtful, romantically shaded.
"Among his ...