Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Julian Priester was born on June 29,1935 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended DuSable High School studying under Walter Dyett and during his teens he played trombone with Muddy Waters, Dinah Washington, and Bo Diddley and jammed with jazz greats Max Roach, Clifford Brown and Sonny Stitt.
By the early 1950s Priester was a member of Sun Ra’s big band, recording several albums with the group before leaving Chicago in 1956 to tour with Lionel Hampton. Settling in New York in ’58 Julian joined Max Roach’s band and during his tenure recorded two albums as a leader for Riverside Records titled Spiritsville and Keep Swingin’.
In 1961 Priester left Max Roach and for the next eight years took a sideman gig on albums by Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Blue Mitchell, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Johnny Griffin and Sam Rivers. During that period he also took part in Coltrane’s Africa/Brass ensemble, which played with Coltrane’s quartet on the album by the same name recorded in 1961. Accepting an invitation to play with Ellington’s big band, he stayed for six months and by 1970 Priester was playing fusion in Herbie Hancock’s sextet.
In 1973, Priester moved to San Francisco, recorded two more albums as a leader, joined the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in 1979 teaching jazz composition, performance and history. Over the course of the next three decades Julian has been a member of the Dave Holland band, returned to play with Sun Ra’s band, became a member of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, co-led with drummer Jimmy Bennington “Portraits and Silhouettes”, played the 30th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival and made significant contribution to “Alice”, a tribute album to Alice Coltrane.
Trombonist Julian Priester’s musical experience spans to the borders of jazz and beyond, encompassing R&B, bebop, hard bop, and progressive and free jazz.
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