Tommy Flanagan

Rarely has such unanimously unstinting praise been bestowed on a less self-congratulatory recipient. As genial and matter-of-fact off the stand as he is fiercely individual at the keys, Tommy Flanagan handles his world class ranking with an equanimity, a modesty, an easy friendliness not always associated with the psychic burden of being Number One. Perhaps because almost instant early recognition by his peers and the universal affection in which he has been held by them over the years has made for a warm and artistically rewarding roost in the jazz jungle for Tommy Flanagan. Or perhaps it is owing to his wholesome origins, as one of six children of an upwardly striving, musically enthusiastic family in Detroit.

Whatever, Flanagan made his professional debut in 1945 at age 15, joining forces with fellow Motor City budding heavyweights Milt Jackson, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones and Kenny Burrell, playing clubs like the Bluebird, Detroit’s renowned jazz room. Flanagan hit New York in 1956, his first gig being a sub job at Birdland for Bud Powell, whom he recalls as a major influence on his own early development, along with Art Tatum and Nat Cole. Flanagan’s own gifts were so readily apparent, in short order he was tapped for recording dates with such jazz icons as Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis.

In 1957 Flanagan made his first trio album, "Tommy Flanagan Overseas," with Elvin Jones and Wilbur Little, which has been reissued many times and is now a collectors’ item. He made more than 100 recordings from 1956 through 1968, many of which have become essential to any serious jazz record library.

From 1968 to 1978, Flanagan toured extensively with Ella Fitzgerald. During that time his recently reissued trio album, "Montreux 77," was recorded. It was with Ella Fitzgerald that he earned his stripes as a jazz’s supreme accompanist, a designation widely acknowledged throughout the industry.

In 1978, in a momentous departure, Flanagan formed his own trio and has since performed almost exclusively in that format. His recording career has since flowered with 15 universally admired albums as a soloist or leading his trio. Over the years the Tommy Flanagan Trio has boasted such significant drummers as Elvin Jones, Al Foster and Art Taylor. He has also employed such gifted younger drummers as Kenny Washington and more recently Lewis Nash. Since launching his trio, the bassist Flanagan has used most notably has been George Mraz, the Czech virtuoso. Mraz’s ability to follow Flanagan’s abundantly creative, ever surprising trail is impressive.

John Zorn’s Masada, Tommy Flanagan, Jeff Parker

by David Brown
February 27, 2024

This week a trio of works featuring guitarist Jeff Parker, we then work our way tough a pile of recently acquired '80s LPs featuring lots of Tommy Flanagan, some Mulgrew Miller and Ronnie Mathews; and finally, we revisit John Zorn's Masada Quartet--leaders of the Radical Jewish Cultural movement of the '90s--who made their first recordings 30 years ago this week in 1994. Welcome friends and neighbors to The Jazz Continuum. Old, new, in, out... wherever the music takes us. Each ...

Album Review

Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions

Read "The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions" reviewed by Scott Gudell

by Scott Gudell
November 22, 2021

If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels--Blue Note, Verve, Milestone--it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade. Big band and bop were duking it out in the ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions

Read "Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 4, 2020

A date for your diary... 18 September 2020. That is when Atlantic / Rhino releases two cracking new editions of John Coltrane's first landmark album, Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). The main event is enhanced audio quality, which has noticeably more presence than any previous reissue. The double CD and vinyl Remastered Edition and digital-only Super Deluxe Edition consist of material which has been newly remastered by John Webber at Air Studios in London. The Remastered Edition includes ...

Album Review

Gene Ammons: Boss Tenor

Read "Boss Tenor" reviewed by Matthew Aquiline

by Matthew Aquiline
July 20, 2016

Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons' tone can be best described using the qualities of an ideally brewed cup of joe: rounded, bold, smooth, and exhilarating after first taste. Widely regarded as an original founder of the “Chicago school of tenor sax," Ammons' nonchalant, yet indelible sound--echoing the soft, breathy tone of Lester Young--drove him to a great deal of fame within the post- World War II jazz crowds of the '50s. Ammons, famously nicknamed “Jug," had an inherent ability ...

Extended Analysis

Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic Of 2

by Dan Bilawsky
March 21, 2013

San Francisco's famed Keystone Korner shuttered its doors in 1983, but it's getting more press today than plenty of clubs that are still serving up jazz. In the past two years alone, a previously unreleased live recording of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard--Pinnacle (Resonance, 2011)--launched Resonance Records' Keystone Korner Live Discoveries series, photographer Kathy Sloane released Keystone Korner: Portrait Of A Jazz Club (IU Press, 2011) to great acclaim, and the club's owner--tireless jazz advocate Todd Barkan--started hosting/curating “Keystone Korner Nights" at ...

Album Review

Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2

Read "The Magic of 2" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 19, 2013

One of San Francisco's most famous jazz venues, Keystone Korner, closed in 1983. It was a favorite venue of the top jazz players of the day, and several landmark live albums by pianists Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and saxophonists Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stan Getz, resulted from shows taped inside its hallowed hall.The Magic of 2 showcases the piano talents of Tommy Flanagan (1930-2001) and Jaki Byard (1922-1999), live at the Keystone Korner in 1982, mixing duets ...

Extended Analysis

Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2

by C. Michael Bailey
March 9, 2013

The story of this previously unreleased performance by pianists Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard at San Francisco's famous Keystone Korner begins with its unusual distributing label, Resonance Records. The original brainchild of studio owner George Kalbin, the label exists as part of the larger endeavor, the non-profit Rising Jazz Stars Foundation, dedicated to the discovery and cultivation of the next generation of jazz stars. This aspect of the RJSF produced recordings by “newer" artists: Andreas Oberg's My Favorite Guitars (2008), ...