NICK BRIGNOLA, 65; TOP JAZZ SAXAPHONE PLAYER

Los Angeles Times
February 12 2002

Nick Brignola, a baritone saxophonist who was one of the top players of his 
instrument in jazz, has died. He was 65.

Brignola died Friday at the Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., after a 
long battle with cancer.

Born in Troy, N.Y., Brignola was largely self-taught, learning the clarinet 
at age 11 and then alto and tenor saxophones. Brignola studied music at 
Ithaca College and won a music scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in 
Boston.

He picked up the burly baritone saxophone quite by accident, taking it as a 
loaner when his alto saxophone was being repaired.

Influenced by greats of the baritone saxophone such as Harry Carney, a 
mainstay of the great Duke Ellington orchestra, Brignola developed his own 
style and began playing in Greenwich Village in New York in the late 1950s. 
He next traveled to San Francisco, where he worked with Cal Tjader's group.

In the 1960s, he became a prominent member of Woody Herman's big band. He 
later began an association with trumpeter Ted Curson that was to last off and 
on through the next three decades.

In the late 1960s, Brignola formed an electronic jazz-rock group that opened 
for several rock acts, including Cat Stevens and Blood, Sweat and Tears.

But he returned to his jazz roots in the 1970s, teaming up again with Curson 
and performing with him throughout the United States and Europe into the 
1980s. He also recorded a number of critically well-received albums for small 
labels. When Brignola recently appeared at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, 
critic Don Heckman noted that while he "has had an underappreciated career," 
he nevertheless "played solo after solo filled with virtuosic explorations of 
the horn."

Brignola is survived by his wife, Yvonne; three children; a granddaughter; 
and his mother.