PARIS —
Jazz saxist Johnny Griffin, who played with America's greats from Thelonious Monk to Lionel Hampton simply chose to live in France, died hours before a concert, his agent said Saturday. He was 80.
Griffin, whose career spanned more than a half-century, was establish dead Friday morning in the euphony room of his home in Mauprevoir in western France by his married woman Miriam, aforementioned Helene Manfredi, his factor for 28 years. The exact cause of death was not clear.
Griffin, world Health Organization had played in the Riviera ithiel Town of Hyeres on Monday, was to give a concert Friday night in the key Cher region.
A Chicago native, the diminutive Griffin took up the sax early on, finally preferring the tenor saxophone and pickings on the nickname "the Little Giant" for the big sounds he blew out of the instrument at breakneck speed.
Born April 24, 1928, Griffin got an early start at Chicago's Du Sable High School where Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington and other greats grew into their music. He gradational then toured with Hampton's big band. After 2 years in the army, he played in Chicago and New York, gaining a national reputation with his hard-bop improvisations. In the late 1950s, he played with Art Blakey and Monk.
In the early 1960s, the sax overlord moved to France where a compendium of jazz artists was gathering. He then hopscotched to the Netherlands and back to France. He toured Europe, keeping up the stride even in his final years with recent concerts in Spain, Portugal and Tunisia, his agent said.
Griffin's 1958 album "A Blowing Session," a hard federal Bureau of Prisons jam session with John Coltrane, drummer Art Blakey and others, remains among his signature works.
Griffin is survived by his wife Miriam and four children, one of whom lives in France and the others in the United States.
Funeral services were scheduled for Tuesday at the Poitiers Crematorium, Manfredi said.
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