James Buffington
Encyclopedia
James Lawrence Buffington (born May 15, 1922, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
; died July 20, 1981, Englewood, New Jersey
) was an American
jazz
hornist
.
Buffington is one of very few jazz musicians whose primary instrument is French horn. He was an autodidact as a child, though his father played piano and trumpet. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music
and began playing in New York
in the 1950s, with Oscar Pettiford
among others. He played with Mel Powell
in 1954 and Teddy Charles
in 1956.
He is perhaps best known for his work with Miles Davis
on some of his Gil Evans
sessions for Columbia Records
. He has done extensive work as a session musician
, and has recorded with Moondog
, Carly Simon
, James Brown
, Urbie Green
, Jimmy Cleveland
, Ernie Royal
, Britt Woodman
, Don Butterfield
, Donald Byrd
, John Coltrane
, Dizzy Gillespie
, J. J. Johnson, Quincy Jones
, Thad Jones
and Mel Lewis
, Michel Legrand
, Lee Morgan
, Paul Desmond
, Eddie Sauter
, Oliver Nelson
, Wes Montgomery
, Jimmy Smith
, the Modern Jazz Quartet
and Grover Washington, Jr.
. Late in the 1970s he played with Freddie Hubbard
, Gato Barbieri
, and George Benson
; in 1980 he played on a Helen Merrill
album.
Buffington released some solo work but it is far less well known.
Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
Jersey Shore is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is on the West Branch Susquehanna River, west by south of Williamsport. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the past, Jersey Shore held farms, railroad shops, cigar factories, a...
; died July 20, 1981, Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
hornist
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
.
Buffington is one of very few jazz musicians whose primary instrument is French horn. He was an autodidact as a child, though his father played piano and trumpet. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
and began playing in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in the 1950s, with Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
among others. He played with Mel Powell
Mel Powell
Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music.Mel Epstein was born to Russian Jewish parents, Milton Epstein and Mildred Mark Epstein, and began playing piano as a child. He performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager...
in 1954 and Teddy Charles
Teddy Charles
Teddy Charles is an American jazz pianist, drummer and vibraphone musician. Born Theodore Charles Cohen in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, he began his musical career studying at Juilliard School of Music as a percussionist...
in 1956.
He is perhaps best known for his work with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
on some of his Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
sessions for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. He has done extensive work as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, and has recorded with Moondog
Moondog
Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin , was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. Moving to New York as a young man, Moondog made a deliberate decision to make his home on the streets there, where he spent approximately twenty of the thirty years he...
, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
, James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Urbie Green
Urbie Green
Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green is an American jazz trombonist who toured with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle....
, Jimmy Cleveland
Jimmy Cleveland
Jimmy Cleveland was an American jazz trombone born in Wartrace, Tennessee.Cleveland worked with many well-known jazz musicians, including Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Quincy Jones, Lucky Thompson, Gigi Gryce, Oscar Peterson, Oscar Pettiford and James Brown...
, Ernie Royal
Ernie Royal
Ernest Andrew Royal was a jazz trumpeter.His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles .He began in Los Angeles as a member of Les Hite's Orchestra in 1937...
, Britt Woodman
Britt Woodman
Britt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
, Don Butterfield
Don Butterfield
Don Butterfield was an American jazz and classical tuba player.-Biography:Butterfield took up tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba instead. After serving in the U.S...
, Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, J. J. Johnson, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Thad Jones
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.-Biography:Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten . Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen...
and Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....
, Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...
, Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
, Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
, Eddie Sauter
Eddie Sauter
Edward Ernest Sauter was a composer and jazz arranger who achieved renown among musicians during the swing era.-Biography:...
, Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
, Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
, Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith (musician)
Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...
, the Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson , John Lewis , Percy Heath , and Kenny Clarke . Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955...
and Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
. Late in the 1970s he played with Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Gato Barbieri
Gato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
, and George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
; in 1980 he played on a Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill is an internationally known jazz vocalist.Merrill's recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy as well as in her native United States...
album.
Buffington released some solo work but it is far less well known.
Discography
- Donald Byrd - I'm Tryin' to Get HomeI'm Tryin' to Get HomeI'm Tryin' to Get Home is an album by American trumpeter Donald Byrd featuring performances by Byrd with a large brass section and vocalists recorded in 1964 and released on the Blue Note label in 1965 as BLP 4188.-Reception:...
(Blue NoteBlue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1965) - John Coltrane: The Complete Africa/Brass SessionAfrica/Brass-Personnel:* John Coltrane — soprano and tenor saxophone* Booker Little — trumpet* Freddie Hubbard — trumpet on May 23 session only* Britt Woodman — trombone on June 4 session only* Charles Greenlee — euphonium on May 23 session only...
(Impulse! RecordsImpulse! RecordsImpulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
, 1961) - Gil Evans: The Individualism of Gil EvansThe Individualism of Gil EvansThe Individualism of Gil Evans is an album by pianist, conductor, arranger and composer Gil Evans originally released on the Verve label in 1964. It features Evans' big band arrangements of five original compositions and compositions by Kurt Weill, Bob Dorough, John Lewis and Willie Dixon...
(Verve, 1963-64) - Miles Davis & Gil Evans Orchestra: Miles AheadMiles AheadMiles Ahead is a jazz album by Miles Davis that was released in 1957 on Columbia CL 1041. This was the first album following Birth of the Cool that Davis recorded with Gil Evans, with whom he would go on to release albums such as Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain...
(Columbia, 1957), Sketches Of SpainSketches of SpainSketches of Spain is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City....
(Columbia, 1959-60); Quiet Nights (Columbia, 1962) - Billy TaylorBilly TaylorBilly Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and since 1994, he was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in...
: My Fair Lady Loves JazzMy Fair Lady Loves JazzMy Fair Lady Loves Jazz is an album by American jazz pianist Billy Taylor featuring performances of show tunes from the musical My Fair Lady recorded in 1957 and originally released on the ABC-Paramount label and rereleased Impulse! label in 1964 following the release of the film.-Reception:The...
(Impulse!, 1957) - Stan GetzStan GetzStanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
with Eddie Sauter Orchestra: Mickey One (Verve, 1965) - Dizzy Gillespie: Carnegie Hall Concert (Verve, 1961)
- Jay Jay Johnson: The Total (RCA, 1960)
- Quincy Jones: Strike Up The Band (Mercury, 1964)
- Michel Legrand: Legrand Jazz (Phillips, 1958)
- Curtis FullerCurtis FullerCurtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...
: Cabin in the SkyCabin in the Sky (album)Cabin in the Sky is a 1962 album by jazz trombonist Curtis Fuller, on which he plays song from the musical Cabin in the Sky.Manny Albam arranged and conducted the accompanying orchestra.-Tracklisting:#"The Prayer" #"Taking a Chance on Love"...
(Impulse!Impulse! RecordsImpulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
, 1962) - Bill EvansBill EvansWilliam John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
: SymbiosisSymbiosis (album)-Track listing:# "Symbiosis 1st Movement - 24:58# "Symbiosis 2nd Movement - 15:55*Recorded in New York City on February 11, 12 & 14, 1974.-Personnel:*Bill Evans - piano, electric piano...
(1974) - Helen Merrill: Casa Forte (Emarcy, 1980)