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Nick Brignola

Internationally renowned jazz baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola came from a musical family in Troy, N.Y. His grandfather played tuba and his father worked his way through school playing banjo and guitar at parties and dances.

Nick, mainly self taught, began playing clarinet at age eleven, then added the alto and tenor saxophones and flute. His major instrument became the baritone saxophone at age twenty, when his alto was being repaired and the only "loaner" the music store had available was a baritone. The rest, as they say, is history.

Nick listened to many forms of music at home and his earliest influences included Paul Desmond of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the big bands of Benny Goodman, Harry James and Woody Herman. He was later attracted to the more modern harmonies of the early Stan Kenton band, Claude Thornhill and West Coast jazz musicians such as Stan Getz.Then came the hard Bop of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins among others. However, his greatest baritone influence was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington band who became his mentor. Harry encouraged Nick to take the horn to another level and Nick in turn made it his voice.

At a young age, Nick was part of a group that was named the Best College Jazz Group by Down Beat Magazine and as a result spent several weeks at the Cafe Bohemia In Greenwich Village New York City playing opposite such greats as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Buddy Rich, Cecil Payne and Cannonball Adderly.

Nick has toured and recorded with the bands of Woody Herman, Charlie Mingus and Phil Woods, but most of his career has centered on performing with his own quartet. His current group performs at festivals, clinics and clubs... where Nick continues to take the baritone to another level.

Nick Brignola: Between A Rock And The Jazz Place

by Rob Rosenblum
April 16, 2017

This interview was originally published in 1969 in an Albany, New York area arts publication called Transition. It documents a time when saxophonist Nick Brignola was in the process of trying to break out of the confines of bebop and incorporate some of the elements of fusion that was beginning to dominate the jazz market. There are many references to a recording he was in the process of making. It was never formally released, although it has been ...

Interview

Nick Brignola: Big Horn, Strong Words

by Rob Rosenblum
October 30, 2016

This article first appeared in Coda Magazine in 1978. With the possible exception of torture, there has never been an art form more maligned than jazz. So, it is inevitable that every once in a while there is an exceptional musician who finds that the financial rewards of being a jazz musician are too small, and its spiritual compensations too infrequent to continue this masochistic pursuit. Case in point--Nick Brignola. If you say “Nick Who?" then ...

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Album Review

Nick Brignola: Things Ain't What They Used To Be: Last Set at Sweet Basil

Read "Things Ain't What They Used To Be: Last Set at Sweet Basil" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke

by R.J. DeLuke
December 1, 2003

Nick Brignola was one of the most robust baritone sax players and could burn with the best of them. Even though he usually took a back seat to Gerry Mulligan or Pepper Adams in popularity polls, he was starting to see more of the limelight before he died of cancer in 2002, drawing in more fans and critical acclaim (though he always had a decent share of both). A good example of what one would encounter in a club can ...

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Album Review

Nick Brignola: What It Takes

by William Grim
August 1, 2002

Nick Brignola was one of the greatest baritone saxophonists of the 20th century and this album was one of his best and most far-ranging efforts. Focusing on straight ahead and bop oriented material, Brignola begins the album with an up-tempo of version of “Star Eyes” in the style of Charlie Parker. Randy Brecker on trumpet delivers a great solo that is reminiscent of Charlie Shavers. “Au Privare,” another Parker favorite, is performed with muted trumpet and Brignola on clarinet doubling ...

Event

Tribute to Nick Brignola on Saturday June 4

Source: All About Jazz
June 1, 2005

KINDERHOOK — Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and pianist Pete Malinverni take the stage Saturday, June 4, in the final concert of the Hudson Valley Friends of Jazz Spring series at North Pointe Cultural Arts Center. The concert will also include an opening set by Jack Fragomeni and Brian Patneaude.

The program, produced by Planet Arts-one2one and sponsord by Reservoir Music, opens at 7 p.m. with an informal discussion among the players and audience. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets ...
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Obituary

Nick Brignola: Gifted Specialist on the Baritone Saxophone

Source: All About Jazz

If the conventional history of jazz is dominated by a series of major innovators who have dictated the sweeping changes in style which have brought the music to its present point, there has been an equally important sub-strata of musicians who have contented themselves with taking those styles as a given, and refining and developing them throughout their careers.

The American saxophonist Nick Brignola is one such player. His chosen field was bop, and his preferred instrument the baritone saxophone. ...
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Obituary

Baritone Saxophonist Nick Brignola Succumbs to Cancer

Source: All About Jazz

Baritone sax great Nick Brignola died at the Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY on Feb. 8, 2002 after a long battle with cancer.

Mainly self-taught, he studied music at Ithaca College and Berklee School of Music in the mid 1950s. His greatest baritone influence was Harry Carney of The Duke Ellington band who became his mentor.

He played with guitarist Sal Salvador and Woody Herman in the early 60s and recorded with Woody in 1964. He also had a ten ...
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