James Moody (March 26, 1925 â€" December 9, 2010) was an American jazz
saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing
predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles.Moody had an unexpected
hit with "Moody's Mood for Love," a 1952 song written by Eddie
Jefferson that used as its melody an improvised solo that Moody had
played on a 1949 recording of "I'm in the Mood for Love." Moody
adopted the song as his own, recording it with Jefferson on his 1956
album Moody's Mood for Love and performing the song regularly in
concert, often singing the vocals himself.James Moody was born in
Savannah, Georgia, and was raised by his (single) mother, Ruby Hann
Moody Watters. He had a brother, Louis. Growing up in Newark, New
Jersey, he was attracted to the saxophone after hearing George Holmes
Tate, Don Byas, and various saxophonists who played with Count Basie,
and later also took up the flute.Moody joined the US Army Air Corps in
1943 and played in the "negro band" on the segregated base. Following
his discharge from the military in 1946 he played bebop with Dizzy
Gillespie for two years. Moody later played with Gillespie in 1964,
where his colleagues in the Gillespie group, pianist Kenny Barron and
guitarist Les Spann, would be musical collaborators in the coming
decades.
saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing
predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles.Moody had an unexpected
hit with "Moody's Mood for Love," a 1952 song written by Eddie
Jefferson that used as its melody an improvised solo that Moody had
played on a 1949 recording of "I'm in the Mood for Love." Moody
adopted the song as his own, recording it with Jefferson on his 1956
album Moody's Mood for Love and performing the song regularly in
concert, often singing the vocals himself.James Moody was born in
Savannah, Georgia, and was raised by his (single) mother, Ruby Hann
Moody Watters. He had a brother, Louis. Growing up in Newark, New
Jersey, he was attracted to the saxophone after hearing George Holmes
Tate, Don Byas, and various saxophonists who played with Count Basie,
and later also took up the flute.Moody joined the US Army Air Corps in
1943 and played in the "negro band" on the segregated base. Following
his discharge from the military in 1946 he played bebop with Dizzy
Gillespie for two years. Moody later played with Gillespie in 1964,
where his colleagues in the Gillespie group, pianist Kenny Barron and
guitarist Les Spann, would be musical collaborators in the coming
decades.
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