New Georgia Encyclopedia: James Moody (b. 1925)

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James Moody (b. 1925)

Savannah-born

James Moody

jazz saxophonist, composer, and band leader James Moody has been recognized worldwide as one of the early innovators of bebop. Moody was born partially deaf on March 26, 1925. He grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and both Newark and Savannah have honored him by declaring a James Moody Day. Georgians may feel honored by "Savannah Calling," a blues song he composed and performed on his 1969 album, The Blues and Other Colors.

Moody began playing music at the age of sixteen, after his uncle gave him a saxophone. In the early 1940s he served in the U.S. Air Force and played in an unofficial air force band. Near the end of his duty in 1946, Moody met Dizzy Gillespie and subsequently became a member of Gillespie's big band. He later performed in Gillespie's quintet in the 1960s and again in the 1990s.

In

The Blues and Other Colors

1948 Moody recorded his first album, James Moody and His Modernists, for Blue Note Records. As of 2007, he had recorded more than fifty albums, including tributes to Frank Sinatra and Henry Mancini.

Moody lived in Europe from 1948 to 1951 and recorded a version of the standard "I'm in the Mood for Love," entitled "Moody's Mood for Love," at the beginning of this period. In 1952 the jazz vocalist King Pleasure recorded a new version of the song in which he sang lyrics written by Eddie Jefferson. "Moody's Mood for Love" became a best-selling record and is considered to be the breakthrough recording for vocalese, a style of jazz singing in which lyrics are sung to a melody originally composed as an instrumental solo.

Although

James Moody

he was one of the early bebop saxophonists, Moody spent seven years playing in the Las Vegas Hilton Orchestra in Nevada before returning to more traditional jazz in 1980. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental performance on the Manhattan Transfer's album Vocalese in 1985. He was nominated for another Grammy in 1990 for his performance on Dizzy Gillespie's Get the Booty.

Moody had a bit part in the 1997 film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was set and shot in Savannah. He played Mr. Glover, who appears in a scene with a leash and collar, walking what appears to be an imaginary dog.