Mann, Herbie

▪ 2004

Herbert Jay Solomon 

      American musician (b. April 16, 1930, Brooklyn, N.Y.—d. July 1, 2003, Pecos, N.M.), was a full-time flutist, a rarity in jazz, and a pioneer of jazz-rock and other kinds of fusion music. Though he was a straightforward bop-oriented player in the 1950s, he had a jazz-funk hit, “Comin' Home Baby,” in 1962 and began traveling widely and incorporating African and Latin American motifs into his playing; he was one of the early jazz musicians to record bossa nova. Mann's popularity spread far beyond traditional jazz boundaries in a series of albums that fused jazz with soul music (in his hit album Memphis Underground), reggae, disco, and rock (London Underground). His success inspired younger flute specialists; in one of his final albums, Eastern European Roots (2000), he joined jazz with his own Jewish musical heritage.

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