Tommy Flanagan

1930-2001

Jazz pianist

Over a career that spanned more than half a century, Tommy Flanagan established himself as one of the world's most preeminent jazz pianists. With a distinctive style combining elements of 1940s swing with the faster bebop of the 1950s, Flanagan was known among colleagues and fans as a classicist, a craftsman who made a traditional composition his own without compromising the integrity of its underlying melody. His modesty made him a superb accompanist, a role he performed for the vocalist Ella Fitzgerald for many years. It was only after leaving Fitzgerald in 1978, however, that his talents as a composer and bandleader were fully recognized.

Tommy Lee Flanagan was born on March 16, 1930, in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest of six children born to Johnson Flanagan, a postal worker, and Ida Mae Flanagan. The family shared a marked enthusiasm for music, and Flanagan began clarinet lessons at the age of six. He enjoyed watching one of his brothers, Johnson Flanagan Jr., practice at the keyboard, so much so that by age ten he dropped the clarinet and began taking piano lessons himself. He later credited his first piano teacher, Gladys Dillard, with instilling in him the disciplined technique that came to be one of his trademarks. She also taught him to play a variety of classical composers, notably Frederic Chopin, and gave him a firm grounding in classical theories of harmony and composition. Flanagan's classical training, which would continue in the exceptionally strong musical-education programs of the Detroit public school system, would serve him well throughout his career.

By the time Flanagan was a teenager, Detroit had emerged as a major center of the jazz world and, arguably, its largest source of talent. A remarkable number of Flanagan's neighbors and peers became major stars, including the vibraphonist Milt Jackson; the brothers Elvin Jones (drums), Thad Jones (trumpet), and Hank Jones (piano); the pianist Barry Harris; and the guitarist Kenny Burrell. Even though Flanagan played at various points with all of these musicians, his collaborations with Burrell and Hank Jones would be especially close. While still in high school, Flanagan began sneaking out of the house at night to go to the famous Blue Bird Inn and other area jazz clubs, often listening outside the door because he was too young to enter. By 1947 he was playing professionally in a trio with Burrell and the bassist Alvin Jackson.

Major influences on Flanagan at this early stage of his development were the pianist Art Tatum and the saxophonist Charlie Parker. The latter was a pioneer of the so-called bebop movement, which began to dominate jazz at the end of the 1940s. While Flanagan embraced bebop's intricate chord progressions and quick tempo, he resisted its emphasis on unrestrained improvisation. In what is perhaps a sign of his classical training and of the lingering influence of the earlier swing style, Flanagan characteristically preferred only short bursts of improvisation. As Ben Ratliff in the New York Times noted of Flanagan's work in the 1980s and 1990s, "His trio created arrangements lined with short improvisations, with one player's solo framed by concise phrases worked out between the other two musicians. A sense of self-restraint permeated all the band's performances, with solo breaks that were not too long and all ideas tastefully wrapped up; the melody line never disappeared under his improvisations."

Between 1947 and 1951 Flanagan attracted an increasing amount of attention with gigs at the Blue Bird Inn and other venues in and around Detroit. His career was interrupted, however, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army for service in South Korea. Upon his return to Detroit around 1953, he found that the local jazz scene had lost much of its vitality. When Burrell, his friend and longtime collaborator, suggested the two move to New York City, Flanagan was quick to agree. Arriving in New York in the spring of 1956, both quickly found steady work as studio musicians, with Flanagan performing on one of the decade's most influential recordings: the saxophonist Sonny Rollins's Saxophone Colossus (1956). In July of 1956 Flanagan's career took a significant turn when he was recommended to the renowned vocalist Ella Fitzgerald as a substitute accompanist. Though the two performed for only a short time before Fitzgerald's primary accompanist returned to work, Flanagan made a lasting impression on the singer, and she would play a formative role in his later career. Several months later, in 1957, the pianist completed the first album to be released under his own name. Recorded during a trip to Sweden, The Tommy Flanagan Trio Overseas featured Elvin Jones on drums and Wilbur Little on bass. It was popular with critics and the public, and its track "Delarna," one of Flanagan's own compositions, became a signature tune.

Upon his return to New York, Flanagan participated in recording sessions that produced what have proved to be some of the most enduring albums in jazz. These include the saxophonist John Coltrane's Giant Steps (1959), the guitarist Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar (1960), and the saxophonist Coleman Hawkins's At Ease with Coleman Hawkins (1960). According to the Web site All about Jazz, Flanagan's playing can be heard on more than one hundred albums produced from 1956 through 1968. In 1963 Fitzgerald offered him the chance to accompany her on a permanent basis. He accepted and worked with her until the end of 1965, when, exhausted by her grueling concert schedule, he moved briefly to California, where he found work for a year as the accompanist for the vocalist Tony Bennett. He then returned to New York. When Fitzgerald returned there in 1968 after an extended tour of Europe, she promptly rehired him. The two worked together for the next ten years, with Flanagan eventually assuming the role as her musical director. In 1978, however, a heart attack prompted him to reevaluate his schedule. After concluding that Fitzgerald's near-constant touring was not good for his health, he left her to concentrate on solo projects.

At a Glance …

Born Tommy Lee Flanagan on March 16, 1930, in Detroit, MI; died of an arterial aneurysm on November 16, 2001, in New York City; son of Johnson (a postal worker) and Ida Mae Flanagan; married Ann, 1960 (divorced 1973[?]); married Diana Kershner, 1976; children: (with Ann) Tommy Jr., Rachel, Jennifer, Ann (deceased 1980). Military service: U.S. Army, 1951-53.

Career: Played in concerts, 1947-2001, and recording sessions, 1956-99 with Thad Jones, Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Wes Montgomery, and other jazz legends; principal accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald, 1963-65 and 1968-78; solo career, 1978-2001.

Awards: Named Best Jazz Pianist, Down Beat's International Critics' Poll, 1992; Jazzpar Prize, International Jazzpar Committee (Denmark), 1993; American Jazz Master Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1996; four Grammy Award nominations.

The next two decades were the most fertile periods of his career. Working with a succession of skilled bassists, notably George Mraz and Peter Washington, and drummers, including Lewis Nash and Albert Heath, Flanagan produced a series of albums that were remarkable for their consistent quality and attention to detail. According to the Web site Jerry Jazz Musician, the longtime jazz critic Gary Giddens remarked of Flanagan's work during this period, "His trio had the precision of a watch." Albums such as Thelonica (1982), a tribute to fellow pianist Thelonious Monk, won international acclaim from critics and the public. In 1993 Flanagan was awarded Denmark's Jazzpar Prize, one of the most prestigious in jazz. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award four times and was named Best Jazz Pianist in Down Beat magazine's 1992 International Critics' Poll.

Flanagan died of an arterial aneurysm on November 16, 2001, in New York City. Surviving him were his wife, Diana Kershner Flanagan, three children from a previous marriage, and a number of grandchildren.

Selected discography

Davis, Miles, Collectors' Items, Prestige/OJC, 1956.

Rollins, Sonny, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige/OJC, 1956.

The Tommy Flanagan Trio Overseas, Prestige, 1957.

Coltrane John, Giant Steps, Atlantic, 1959.

Hawkins, Coleman, At Ease with Coleman Hawkins, Original Jazz Classics, 1960.

Montgomery, Wes, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, Riverside/OJC, 1960.

The Tommy Flanagan Trio, Prestige/OJC, 1960.

Hawkins, Coleman, Desafinado: Bossa Nova and Jazz Samba, GRP/Impulse, 1962.

Fitzgerald, Ella, Fine and Mellow, Pablo, 1974.

Fitzgerald, Ella, Montreux '75, Pablo, 1975.

The Tokyo Recital, Original Jazz Classics, 1975.

Trinity, Inner City, 1975.

Eclypso, Enja, 1977.

Montreux '77, Pablo/OJC, 1977.

Ballads and Blues, Enja, 1978.

(With Hank Jones) Our Delights, Galaxy/OJC, 1978.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Original Jazz Classics, 1978.

The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan, Progressive, 1981.

Thelonica, Enja, 1982.

Jazz Poet, Timeless, 1989.

Beyond the Blue Bird, Timeless, 1990.

Let's Play the Music of Thad Jones, Enja, 1993.

Lady Be Good … for Ella, Verve, 1994.

Flanagan's Shenanigans, Storyville, 1995.

Sea Changes, Evidence, 1996.

For Bird, Monk, Trane, & Thad, Jazzfest, 1997.

Sunset and the Mockingbird: The Birthday Concert, Blue Note, 1998.

(With Hank Jones) I'm All Smiles, Verve, 1999.

Sources

Periodicals

New York Times, November 19, 2001.

Online

Bowers, Jack, "Sunset and the Mockingbird," All about Jazz, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=2985 (accessed June 18, 2008).

"Gary Giddens, Part 1," Jerry Jazz Musician, http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=/giddins_underrated1.html (accessed June 18, 2008).

Mathieson, Kenny, "Lucid and Sophisticated Jazz Pianist: Tommy Flanagan," All about Jazz, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=965 (accessed June 18, 2008).

"Tommy Flanagan," All about Jazz, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6729#bio (accessed June 18, 2008).

Yanow, Scott, "Tommy Flanagan," allmusic, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifpxqt5ldae˜T1 (accessed June 18, 2008).

—R. Anthony Kugler