Brazen Reeds
Legendary saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman wasn't too happy with how he was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Ray. "It wasn't me at all," he counters.
Newman met Ray Charles in the early '50s, in the era of the one-nighters. Charles was working with Lowell Fulson, and Newman was in T-Bone Walker's band. The two became close, and when Ray formed his band in 1954, he invited Newman to join him. Charles would later be instrumental in launching and nurturing the saxophonist's career as a frontman and solo artist.
On his latest album, Cityscape, Newman packs a couple of new compositions with songs that audiences have responded well to throughout the years, such as the James Bond theme "Goldfinger" and the melancholy "It Was A Very Good Year." "We wanted to go without with a theme," he summarizes. "I picked standards that went well alongside the originals."