Paul Gonsalves

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Paul Gonsalves

| image = Paul Gonsalves.jpg

| image_size =

| landscape =

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|7|12}}

| birth_place = Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S.

| origin =

| death_date = {{death date and age|1974|5|15|1920|7|12}}

| death_place = London, England

| genre = Jazz, swing, bebop

| occupation = Musician

| instrument = Tenor saxophone

| years_active = 1938–1974

| label = RCA Victor, Impulse!, Riviera, Black Lion

| past_member_of = Sabby Lewis, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington

}}

Paul Gonsalves ({{birth date|1920|7|12}} – {{death date |1974|5|15}}) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7099 "Paul Gonsalves", Allaboutjazz.com.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915200413/http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7099 |date=September 15, 2009 }} best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,"[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6589/biography|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic biography] a performance credited with revitalizing Ellington's waning career in the 1950s.Larson, Thomas E. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kfFgNABSuuUC&q=%22Paul+Gonsalves%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&pg=PA106 The History and Tradition of Jazz, p. 106.] Google Books.

Biography

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, to Portuguese Cape Verdean parents, Gonsalves' first instrument was the guitar, and as a child he was regularly asked to play Cape Verdean folk songs for his family. He grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and played as a member of the Sabby Lewis Orchestra.{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=994}} His first professional engagement in Boston was with the same group on tenor saxophone, in which he played before and after his military service during World War II.Carr, Ian and Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley[https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&q=Gonsalves&pg=RA5-PT106 The Rough Guide to Jazz.] Google Books. He also played with fellow Cape Verdean Americans in Phil Edmund's band in the 1940s.{{Cite book|last=Morton|first=John Fass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MaHTQu65gzcC&q=edmund|title=Backstory in Blue: Ellington at Newport '56|date=2008|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-4282-9|pages=137, 140|language=en}} Before joining Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1950, he also played in big bands led by Count Basie (1947–1949) and Dizzy Gillespie (1949–1950).

At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves' solo in Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" went through 27 choruses; the publicity from this performance is credited with reviving Ellington's career.Martin, Henry and Keith Waters [https://books.google.com/books?id=kuz4EHH05I4C&q=%22Paul+Gonsalves%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&pg=PT179 Jazz: the first 100 years, Cengage Learning, p. 150.] Google Books. The performance is captured on the album Ellington at Newport. Gonsalves was a featured soloist in numerous Ellingtonian settings. He received the nickname "The Strolling Violins" from Ellington for playing solos while walking through the crowd.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PF4xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M3MDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7162,2044447&dq=paul-gonsalves+died+%7C+death+%7C+dead&hl=en "Paul Gonsalves, Ellington band saxophonist," May 18, 1974.] St. Petersburg Times

Gonsalves died in London ten days before Duke Ellington's death, after a lifetime of addiction to alcohol and narcotics.Downbeat magazine, March 16, 1961, page 11, reports "Ellingtonians arrested in Vegas" "Ray Nance, Willie Cook. Andrew (Fats) Ford as well as Paul Gonsalves...the sheriff's squad seized...heroin plus hypodermic needles, eye droppers and other paraphernalia of the narcotic user" Mercer Ellington refused to tell Duke of the passing of Gonsalves, fearing the shock might further accelerate his father's decline. Ellington and Gonsalves, along with trombonist Tyree Glenn, lay side by side in the same New York funeral home for a period of time.Hasse, John Edward [https://books.google.com/books?id=kAvP43QuUyEC&q=%22Paul+Gonsalves%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&pg=PA385 Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, Da Capo Press, p. 385.] Google Books.

Gonsalves is buried at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.