Gary Bartz

Gary Bartz (born September 26, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist.

Biography

Bartz studied at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus's Jazz Workshop. He worked as a sideman with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In 1968 he was a member of McCoy Tyner's band Expansions.

In mid-1970 he joined Miles Davis's band, performing live at the Isle Of Wight festival in August, and at a series of December dates at The Cellar Door club in Washington, D.C. Portions of these shows were initially released on the 1971 Live-Evil album, with the entire six performance/four night run eventually released in full on the 2005 Cellar Door Sessions box set.

He later formed the band Ntu Troop, which combined jazz, funk, and soul.

Bartz was awarded the BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award, presented at a special ceremony at The Kennedy Center.

In the liner notes to the album The Red and Orange Poems, jazz critic Stanley Crouch called Bartz "one of the very best who has ever picked up the instrument".

Discography

With the Rance Allen Group

• Say My Friend (1977)

With Gene Ammons

• Goodbye (Prestige, 1974)

With Roy Ayers

• Stoned Soul Picnic (Atlantic, 1968)

With Cindy Blackman

• The Oracle (Muse, 1995)

With Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

• Soul Finger (Limelight, 1965) Bartz recording debut
• Hold On, I'm Coming (Limelight, 1966) on one track left over from Soul Finger sessions

With Donald Brown

• Sources of Inspiration (Muse, 1989)

With Kenny Burrell

• Ellington Is Forever Volume Two (Fantasy, 1975)

With Donald Byrd

• Stepping into Tomorrow (1974)
• Caricatures (1976)

With Norman Connors

• Invitation
• Slewfoot
• This is Your Life
• Invitation
• Love from the Sun
• Dance of Magic: Live at the Nemu Jazz Inn
• Romantic Journey
• Saturday Night Special

With Miles Davis

• The Cellar Door Sessions (1970)
• Live-Evil
• Bitches Brew Live (2011)
• Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (2015)

With Ray Drummond

• Vignettes (Arabesque, 1996)

With Antonio Hart

• Don't You Know That I Care (1992)

With Louis Hayes

• The Crawl (Candid, 1989)

With Phyllis Hyman

• You Know How to Love Me
• Phyllis Hyman
• Can't We Fall in Love Again?

With Barney McAll

• Release the Day (2001)

With Jackie McLean

• Ode to Super (SteepleChase, 1973)

With Grachan Moncur III

• Exploration (2004)

With Alphonse Mouzon

• Virtue (1976)

With Rare Silk

• New Weave

With Max Roach

• Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968)

With Pharoah Sanders

• Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (Impulse!, 1970)

With Woody Shaw

• Blackstone Legacy (Contemporary, 1970)
• For Sure! (Columbia, 1979)
• United (Columbia, 1981)

With Sphere

• Sphere (1987) – Verve

With Charles Tolliver

• Paper Man (Freedom, 1968 [1975])

With Bob Thiele Collective

• Lion Hearted (1993)

With McCoy Tyner

• Expansions (1968)
• Cosmos (1970)
• Extensions (1970)
• Asante (1970)
• Sama Layuca (1974)
• Focal Point (1976)
• Looking Out (1982)
• Dimensions (1984)
• McCoy Tyner and the Latin All-Stars (1999)
• Illuminations (2004)

With Robert Walter

• Spirit of '70 (1996)

With Chip White

• Harlem Sunset with Steve Nelson, Robin Eubanks, Claudio Roditi (Postcards)

With John Lee & Gerry Brown

• Infinite Jones with Chris Hinze (Keytone, 1974)