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Paul Gonsalves was born July 12, 1920 in Brockton, Massachusetts to Cape Verdean parents.  His first instrument was the guitar, and as a child he was regularly asked to play Portuguese folk songs for his family. Growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts he was a member of the Sabby Lewis Orchestra.

His first professional engagement in Boston was with the same group on tenor saxophone, that he had learned to play prior to and during World War II military service. After the war he played in Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie’s big bands before joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1950.

At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves’ solo in Ellington’s song “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” contained 27 choruses and the publicity from which is credited with reviving Ellington’s career. This performance is captured on the album Ellington at Newport. He was a featured soloist in numerous Ellingtonian settings and received the nickname “The Strolling Violins” from Ellington for playing solos while walking through the crowd.

Tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves died on May 15, 1974 in London just a few days before Duke Ellington’s death. Gonsalves and Ellington, along with trombonist Tyree Glenn, lay side-by-side in the same New York funeral home for a period of time.

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