

Her new album, Holding Space, a live recording of a Berlin concert in 2018, captures this nuanced interplay. I want to feel in touch with them in a real way.” I want to know what their lives are like. “I want to be with the people I’m singing to.

“I decided from that experience that I wanted to get back to the stage in a way that made me feel closer to the people, that I didn’t want to follow practices that were based on a star-like hierarchy,” Wright said in a call from her Windy City home. Instead, Wright’s easy relationships with her patrons arose simply from sharing time and space with one other. Many of the locals knew nothing about her global celebrity as a jazz singer. And the fulfillment she felt working as a ground-to-table chef at the South Side Chicago café that she runs with her wife, arts administrator Monica Haslip, surprised her.

With her performing on pause, cooking was another kind of voice for the successful singer-songwriter. (Photo: Jesse Kitt)ĭuring the pandemic, Lizz Wright delved more deeply into her love of the culinary arts.

“I decided from that experience that I wanted to get back to the stage in a way that made me feel closer to the people,” Wright said. At the end of his rant (and the rehearsal) he said: ‘Do you know who the hell I am? I’m Ronnie Cuber … and this rehearsal is over!’ I looked at my big brothers, drummer Victor Jones and legendary percussionist Milton Cardona (R.I.P.), and they motioned me out the door! The next day was as if it never happened and the session (as you can hear) was great! I’m gonna miss you, Ronnie. “Ronnie was pissed at pianist Geoff Keezer for not taking the music seriously. “When I first heard mentor/music legend Ronnie Cuber had passed away, the 1993 The Scene Is Clean (Milestone) recording session immediately popped into my head,” said bassist Reggie Washington on social media. Cuber was one of cats that made you realize that this is why you move to NYC. “He was a musician’s musicians that truly knew what he wanted. “Ronnie was kind of a hard-edged cat, as we all knew, but there was also a soft side to him that made you like him and want to listen to his stories, and he had a lot of ’em,” drummer Steve Johns stated in a social media posting. In 1998, Cuber played on and arranged the Three Baritone Saxophone Band’s tribute disc Plays Mulligan. He recorded his own Cuber Libre in 1976 and released a succession of traditional jazz records in the ’80s and beyond, such as Live At The Blue Note and The Scene Is Clean (Milestone).Īmong the pop and blues musicians who recruited Cuber for sessions were Chaka Khan, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, David Byrne, Paul Simon and B.B. While working with Lee Konitz in the late ’70s, Cuber featured clarinet and soprano saxophone alongside the baritone. During the next decade, Cuber performed on a wealth of recordings and embraced distant ends of the woodwind family by playing flute and baritone saxophone on Eddie Palmieri’s 1973 record Sun Of Latin Music. Three years later he was in Slide Hampton’s groups and spent the 1960s working with Maynard Ferguson, George Benson, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and Lonnie Smith. When he was 18, he appeared in Marshall Brown’s Newport Youth Band at the Newport Jazz Festival. He played traditional jazz in the style of Pepper Adams and Nick Brignola, but also has led Latin sessions and appeared on dozens of pop and blues recordings as an in-demand sideman.Ĭuber was born on Christmas Day, 1941, in New York.
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Thank you, Ronnie, may your spirit roam free and be blessed!”Ĭuber had the ability to bring out the lyricism of the baritone. He is one of those people who will forever live in my heart and the memories we shared on the bandstand and in studios will always be cherished. Ronnie delivered tasteful phrases on my album Harlem River Drive and his solo on “Coast To Coast” is one that epitomizes the type of range Ronnie always carried as a remarkable session player. “Known mostly for his musicianship on the baritone saxophone, his contributions to an eclectic array of musical recordings span over 60 years. “In memory of my dear friend Ronnie Cuber who just passed away, he was truly one of a kind,” Palmieri wrote on social media. On the jazz side, Cuber was a staple of Eddie Palmieri’s band, drawing condolences and praise from the great Latin jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader. Known on stage as Ronnie, Cuber drew praise as a master of the baritone saxophone, performing as a sideman with an expansive, wide-ranging number of artists and groups. Saxophonist Ronald Edward Cuber passed away on Oct. Cuber had the ability to bring out the lyricism of the baritone saxophone.
