Bobby Jaspar

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Belgian jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer (1926–1963)

title: "Bobby Jaspar" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1926-births", "1963-deaths", "cool-jazz-saxophonists", "cool-jazz-flautists", "hard-bop-saxophonists", "hard-bop-flautists", "belgian-jazz-saxophonists", "belgian-jazz-flautists", "musicians-from-liège", "20th-century-belgian-saxophonists", "20th-century-flautists"] description: "Belgian jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer (1926–1963)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jaspar" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Belgian jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer (1926–1963) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameBobby Jaspar
imageBobby Jaspar.jpg
altBobby Jaspar
birth_date
birth_placeLiège, Belgium
death_date
death_placeNew York City, New York, United States
genreJazz
spouse
occupationMusician
instrumentFlute, tenor saxophone
years_active1954–1963
labelPrestige
::

| name = Bobby Jaspar | image = Bobby Jaspar.jpg | image_size = | alt = Bobby Jaspar | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Liège, Belgium | death_date = | death_place = New York City, New York, United States | genre = Jazz | spouse = | occupation = Musician | instrument = Flute, tenor saxophone | years_active = 1954–1963 | label = Prestige

Bobby Jaspar (20 February 1926 – 28 February 1963) was a Belgian cool jazz and hard bop saxophonist, flautist and composer.

Early life

Born in Liège, Belgium, Jaspar learned to play piano and clarinet at a young age. Later, he took up the tenor saxophone and flute.

Career

With the "Bop Shots" band, he took his first steps in the jazz world. In 1950, Jaspar moved to Paris, playing and recording with the best musicians of the era. Here he met singer Blossom Dearie; the two were married in 1954, but divorced in 1957.

In 1956, Jaspar was persuaded to try his luck in the United States, where his reputation in jazz circles had preceded him. He played and recorded with the quintet of J. J. Johnson, with Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Donald Byrd and many others.

In 1961/1962, Jaspar returned to Europe for a year for a series of concerts and a number of recordings, and formed a successful quintet with Belgian guitarist René Thomas. In some sessions, this was expanded to a powerful sextet with American trumpeter Chet Baker. One of those sessions, recorded in 1962, was released on record as Chet Is Back!.

Death

Bobby Jaspar died from a heart attack in New York City, on 28 February 1963 at age 37.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

With Chet Baker

  • Chet Baker and His Quintet with Bobby Jaspar (Barclay, 1956)
  • Chet Is Back! (RCA, 1962)

With Donald Byrd

  • Byrd in Paris (Brunswick, 1958)
  • Parisian Thoroughfare (Brunswick, 1958)
  • Cannes '58 (Sam, 1958 [2022])
  • Paris '58 (Sam, 1958 [2023])

With Chris Connor

  • Chris Craft (Atlantic, 1958)
  • Sings Ballads of the Sad Cafe (Atlantic, 1959)

With Blossom Dearie

With J. J. Johnson

With others

References

References

  1. (1992). "[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music". [[Guinness Publishing]].
  2. (13 February 2009). "Blossom Dearie: Jazz songwriter, singer and pianist who worked with Johnny Mercer and Woody Herman". [[The Independent]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1926-births1963-deathscool-jazz-saxophonistscool-jazz-flautistshard-bop-saxophonistshard-bop-flautistsbelgian-jazz-saxophonistsbelgian-jazz-flautistsmusicians-from-liège20th-century-belgian-saxophonists20th-century-flautists