Chico Freeman
b. Earl Freeman Jnr., 17 July 1949, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Freeman started out playing trumpet but while at university switched to tenor saxophone, the instrument played by his father Von Freeman. After university, where he studied music education, he played in R&B bands, before changing direction and working with Muhal Richard Abrams and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM). In the mid-to late '70s he continued his studies, meanwhile working with many leading contemporary jazz artists, including Elvin Jones, Sun Ra and Don Pullen. In the early '80s he recorded two albums, FATHERS AND SONSand FREEMAN AND FREEMAN, with his father, toured as leader of his own small group, and also appeared with Wynton Marsalis, Cecil McBee, Jack DeJohnette and others. Interestingly, Freeman's striking playing style blends the post-Coltrane tradition of long angular lines with the rougher-toned urgency of his R&B schooling into a sound which is identifiably his own. The 1979 SPIRIT SENSITIVEIS one of the finest collections of ballads by a modern tenor player, but by the late '80s Freeman was devoting most of his time to his fusion band Brainstorm. He is also a member of the occasional super-group, the Leaders.