Biography
Blythe lived in San Diego, California, returning to Los Angeles when he was 19 years old. He took up the alto saxophone at the age of nine, playing R&B until his mid-teens when he discovered jazz. He studied with David Jackson and Jimmie Lunceford, and Kirtland (Kirk) Bradford. In the mid-1960s he was part of The Underground Musicians and Artists Association (UGMAA), west coast counterpart to Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) founded by Horace Tapscott, on whose 1969 The Giant Is Awakened, Blythe made his recording debut.
After moving to New York in the mid-70s, he worked as a security guard before being offered a place as sideman for Chico Hamilton (75-77). He subsequently played with Gil Evans Orchestra (76-78), Lester Bowie (‘78), Jack DeJohnette (‘79) and McCoy Tyner (‘79). The Arthur Blythe band of 1979 - John Hicks, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall - played Carnegie Hall and the Village Vanguard.
Blythe started to record as a leader in 1977 for the India Navigation label and then for Columbia records from 1978 to 1987. Albums such as The Grip and Metamorphosis (both on India Navigation) offered capable, highly refined jazz fare with a free angle that made Blythe too "out there" for the general public, but endeared him to the more serious jazz fans. Blythe played on many pivotal albums of the 1980s, among them Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition on ECM. Blythe was a member of the all-star jazz group The Leaders and, after the departure of Julius Hemphill, he joined the World Saxophone Quartet. Beginning in 2000 he made recordings on Savant Records which included Exhale (2003) with John Hicks (piano), Bob Stewart (tuba), and Cecil Brooks III (drums).
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