Castle blues - Sims Zoot/Red Mitchell 1984
This is from a filming session in a private residence in Sweden in 1984. Zoot Sims plays a freely improvised blues in Db on tenor saxophone with bassist Red Mitchell. Rune Gustafsson is on guitar.
Following in the footsteps of Lester Young, Zoot Sims ( born 1925) developed into an innovative tenor saxophonist. Throughout his career, he played with renowned bands, including Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich. Sims was also one of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers", and he was known among his peers as one of the strongest swingers in the field. He frequently led his own combos and sometimes toured with his friend Gerry Mulligan's sextet, and later with Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. Sims had a long, successful partnership as co-leader of a quintet with Al Cohn, which recorded under the name "Al and Zoot". That group was a favorite at the New York club "The Half Note." Late in his career, Sims added the soprano saxophone to his performances. Sims acquired the nickname — Zoot — early in his career while he was in the Kenny Baker band in California. The name was later appropriated for a sax-playing Muppet.
Zoot Sims died in New York on March 23, 1985.
