Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eric Kloss was born April 3, 1949 in Greenville, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, and attended the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind, which was run by his father. When he was 10, he started on saxophone, and two years later he was playing in night clubs with professional musicians such as Bobby Negri, Charles Bell, and Sonny Stitt. At 16, he recorded his debut album, Introducing Eric Kloss on the Prestige label in 1965, with Don Patterson and Pat Martino.

On his third album, Grits & Gravy, he recorded with musicians over twice his age: Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson. He continued recording and performing while a student at Duquesne University. A fan of Elvis Presley and The Ventures, he was attracted to the growth of jazz fusion in the 1960s and ’70s, and eventually played with fusion musicians Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. He also collaborated with Richie Cole and Gil Goldstein, and did sessions with Cedar Walton, Jimmy Owens, Kenny Barron, Jack DeJohnette, Booker Ervin, Barry Miles, and Terry Silverlight.

By the 1980s, Kloss was teaching at Rutgers University, then Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon. He and his wife, a vocalist, collaborated in a group called Quiet Fire. Saxophonist Eric Kloss has performed and recorded rarely since the Eighties due to health problems.

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