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Artist
Odean Pope
12+ albums
free jazzjazzsaxophoneTenor SaxJuma
about
An important and somewhat overlooked contributor to the music canvas with his circular breathing continuous fluid tenor sax poetry, Odean Pope; is a blessing on the Philadelphia Jazz scene. Please visit his website http://www.odeanpope.com to learn more about this selfless mentor and teacher. Odean Pope (born October 24, 1938, Ninety Six, South Carolina) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.[1] Pope was raised in Philadelphia, where he learned from Ray Bryant while young.[2] Early in his career, at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater, Pope played behind a number of noted rhythm and blues artists including James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.[3] He played briefly in the 1960s with Jimmy McGriff, and late in the 1960s he began working with Max Roach, including on tours of Europe in 1967-68. He was a member of Philadelphia group Catalyst in the early and mid-1970s, and assembled the Saxophone Choir, which consists of nine saxophones and a rhythm section (piano, bass and drums), in 1977. He became a regular member of Roach's quartet in 1979 and has recorded extensively with him, in addition to numerous releases as a leader. Pope has publicly spoken about his bipolar disorder, which he has had for over 30 years.[4] Pope was quoted in 2001 as saying, “Every time I pick that horn up there's always something that I discover I can do differently if I really seek. If you were on planet Earth for, like, 2 billion years, I feel as though there's always something new that you can find
