Nick Brignola was born on July 17, 1936, in Troy, in Rensselaer County, New York, about fifty kilometers from New York. “I came froman area that had virtually no live jazz,” he explained. “When I was young, I took clarinet lessons for six or seven months; then I stopped, because the music did not interest me. But five or six years later, when I heard Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan, I got back to it.”

“I remember having to wait weeks just to get a Paul Desmond record. So I was starved for jazz. I made a couple of trips to New York and heard Charlie Parker and George Shearing. That was when I decided I was going to be a musician. That was it.” “I didn’t enjoy playing the clarinet, so I switched to the alto saxophone. Although I was mainly self-taught, the lessons I had taken previously helped me, and I gradually improved my playing. I didn’t feel very comfortable playing the alto or tenor saxophones, but when I picked up the baritone for the first time, it felt like the right fit for me.”At the time “the jazz baritone was Mulligan; I listened to him but didn’t want to play like him because I prefer a game that ‘drives,’ which pushes. The second I heard was Serge Chaloff; I preferred his approach style, although some things didn’t excite me about him.

The baritone has not been exploited in theway that the alto has been by Parker and the tenor by John Coltrane. I listened to Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, who played baritone sax from one end of the instrument to the other. The only one who came close to mastering it is Harry Carney; I prefer to listen to him in small groups or just with rhythm section. He’s drown with the Duke Ellington band, which is a shame because he’s a hell of a musician.”

“Here we have the greatest saxophone and the one with the greatest potential for possibilities; It’s a whole world of sounds. The register of the alto is narrow, and that of the tenor too. But the baritone, you can play it very low and also very high; in the low register he sounds heavy, thick, and in the high register he can sound like a tenor. With all these varied sounds, it is forme the most interesting instrument.”

Another instrument Nick used to play was the saxello. “It was originally a soprano with a curved horn. But we only made about a hundred, forty years ago, and that’s it. I have been very happy to find one, one day, in an instrument store, and I bought it. The only difference that I see is the diameter, greater in the soprano; mine is smaller. Hence a more penetrating and clear sound. Sometimes it sounds like an oboe, sometimes like a clarinet. That’s why I like it, because of the different colors of the sound.

I appreciate it because it is the opposite of what my baritone is. It is in B flat, my baritone in E flat. The sound is small, that of the baritone, more massive. The nice thing is to be able to change instruments depending on whether at any given time one suits you better than the other.”

After graduating from Troy High School, Nick began studying Music Education at Ithaca College because he planned to be a music teacher. However, it was during this time that Nick had his first significant playing experiences. “There was a pianist there by the name of Reese Markewich. He had heard about me and asked if I wanted to do some playing.” Reese put together a quintet, comprised of college students —featuring Nick on baritone and alto sax— and copped first place in the National Collegiate Jazz Contest, sponsored by the National Jazz Fraternity.

Encouraged by the award, Reese suggested making a demo tape of the quintet. “That was fine with me,” said Nick, “sowe went to the campus radio station and made a tape. Ronnie Zito was playing drums so it was a good group. Unknown to me, Reese submitted the tape to one of the first college contests.”

A month later, near the end of August 1957, a group of critics sat listening to jazz over the speakers at New York’s Café Bohemia. Among them were Dom Cerulli of Down Beat, Howard Cook of Billboard, Don Nelson of New York’s Daily News and others of the jazz world.

What made this gathering unusual was the absence of musicians from the stage. Instead, on the stage, was a battery of tape recorders, set up for the purposse of playing the tapes of undiscovered jazz groups submitted in competition for the 2nd annual New York Jazz Festival contest” explained Don Friedman, producer of the festival. After listening to some seventeen groups, the Reese Markewich Quintet was chosen as the winner of the competition. “They were looking for the best college jazz group and as it turned out we won it,” recalled Nick.

The first prize was an appearance at the Randall’s Island Jazz Festival and a two week gig at the Cafe Bohemia. “The festival was incredible. Everybody loved us. I’ll never forget Paul Desmond, who was one of my earliest idols, I was playing and looked down and saw Paul Desmond with his arms on the bandstand looking up at me and nodding. I couldn’t believe it!

The Cafe Bohemia gig really started a lot of things.”The award provided the group of young musicians with many opportunities, including recording an album “New Designs in Jazz with the Reese Markewich Quintet,” and performing at various festivals.

Soon after, Brignola was awarded a Benny Goodman scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. They gave me four years of tuition, room, board, and all of that.” With the Berklee School Orchestra, he recorded on baritone the album “Jazz in the Classroom, vol.2” “I stayed for only a year because I saw the handwriting on the wall.”

“I mean, to be a jazz player you’ve got to go out and play,” said Nick. “If I had really wanted to get into the writing aspect, it might have paid off to stay there and use the bands that would have been at my disposal). But I wanted to be a player. So I got out and jumped into the pool.”

In 1958, Nick moved to San Francisco to pursue his passion for performing live. He quickly found work with Cal Tjader’s group and The Mastersounds, playing at the iconic Black Hawk Club for a few months. In 1959 he returned to Troy and formed a new group with Dave Pike (vib), Dick Kniss (b) and Dick Berk (d), which performed at the Gayety Theater in Albany and at college jazz concerts at Cornell, Colgate, Dartmouth and Ithaca.

In the summer of that year, Nick Brignola gained national notoriety when he was placed fourth “new star” baritone in the Down Beat critics’ poll. He travelled again to the West Coast with his group, made up by Bob James (p), Dick Kniss (b), and Dick Berk (d), playing with Shelly Manne’s group.

In the spring of 1962, he started to play with Sal Salvador’s rehearsal band, one of the first of its kind. People like Joe Farrell, Charlie Mariano and Eddie Gomez were in the band. We played a few gigs and cut a few albums. Only one was released but I was featured on All The Things You Are. A lot of people heard that, which was good forme.

Next stint was with the Woody Herman’s band. “That was in 1963. My buddy Sal Nistico got me on the band. But I didn’t stay long. When we recorded the album that was released as 'Woody Herman: 1964,' it was the day Kennedy got killed. And I really didn’t feel that I was getting to play enough on the band. I didn’t enjoy sitting there reading parts all night. I was anxious. I had to get out. So I came back to New York and just played a few gigs here and there. Jazz was on the decline, so I was around Troy.” For four years (1965-1969) he worked as producer and host of the Saturday’s program “Essence of Jazz” on the local station WFLY-FM, organized jazz broadcasts, gave lectures and concerts at colleges, until Ted Curson called him in 1967, to go to Europe with him and drummer Dick Berk.

“We had a mutual friend in Dick Berk. Dick is an old buddy who was inmy wedding and so on. Anyway, when he was playing with Ted, he kept telling him, ‘Get Nick Brignola; get Nick Brignola.’ So one day Ted called and that was really the big beginning, you know. In fact, every time I turned around, Ted Curson entered my life. We have a real good rapport as far as playing goes. And we’re really good friends. Everything just worked out right.”

They began a four-month European tour playing first at the Antibes Jazz Festival, with a quartet that included Berk and bassist Reggie Johnson. Subsequently Ted and Nick with different bassists and drummers also played at the Bologna Music Festival, the Cologne Jazz Festival, the Pori Jazz Festival, in Finland; and the Yugoslavia Jazz Festival.

Towards the end of 1968, Nick recorded his first album as a leader, that would be released on his own, newly established Priam label (Box 1257, Albany, N.Y.). “What started out as just a musical get-together became a recording date.” The result of that occasionwas the album “This Is It!, which brought together four musicians who had never played together as a group. Their only preparation was a mutual feeling about music, and the spontaneous energy and chemistry they generated during the recording session can be heard in every track. Pete Welding on his excellent Down Beat review, said: “Reed player Brignola has come up with a very tasty program of post-bop that serves as a good demonstration Nick in Antibes, 1967 of his multi-instrumental prowess as well. Opportunities formulti-tracking are used to good advantage on a number of selections —The Mace is a Brignola baritone duet, while Blues for Ose finds him playing both saxello and bass— and Brignola uses his doubling skills to excellent effect on the balance of the selections, switching from horn to horn to give the pieces a good bit of color and interest.”

The album takes an approach that tends more towards the visceral than the lyrical, due to the leader’s strong, invigorating playing and revealing use of his various instruments. Bassist Glen Moore and drummer Dick Berk propel Brignola along with kicking rhythm support, and Markewich comps efectively. Brignola then spent a number of years with dozens of then and now well known jazz musicians. “Dave Holland, Glen Moore and Frank Tusa were bassists in the band at different times,” Brignola reminisced. “I had a group which was historically one of the earliest of the electric approach in 1970.

In June 1974, Nick’s quartet was playing at Shaker’s in Troy, and Chet Baker joined for a weekend. The performances were memorable, and they are still remembered today. “I re-surfaced in 1975 when Ted regrouped. Ted did an awful lot form in getting me out in front and I owe most of my exposure to him.” Curson’s album “Jubilant Power” (1976) helped to reintroduce Curson and Brignola. Together the two play with a variety of players. ‘’As a duo, we can go anywhere since we know’ the handbook,” said Brignola.

‘Much of Curson’s music is interesting and challenging. Another appealing thing is that you’ll never know what the hell is going to happen with him, positively speaking. That is, “he ll throw a new tempo to a tune we’ll be playing and it suddenly be comes a whole new tune! Ted’s full of surprises. That’s the challenge— to jump in there and make it successful and swing.” Nick joined Ted in two more albums for Atlantic.

Nick later recorded the albums “New York Bound” (1979), a quartet with Walter Bishop, Jr, Sam Jones, and Roy Haynes; and “L.A. Bound” (1979 ) with trombonist Bill Watrous, both for Interplay Records; “Baritone Madness” (1978) with Curson and Pepper Adams; and “Burn Brigade” (1980) featuring Brignola with baritonists Cecil Payne and Ronnie Cuber, for the Bee-Hive Chicago label.

From the 1980s onwards, Brignola continued to record sixteen more albums under his own name, as well as numerous albums as a sideman with many famous and well established musicians. Brignola’s energetic, powerfully authoritative, inventive, and lyrical style ensured that he remained one of the greatest baritone players in the annals of jazz. He had a striking command of the instrument’s full resources. Although the baritone sax remained his primary and distinctive instrument, Nick Brignola also occasionally played soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, clarinet, and flute. In addition to his performances, he was actively involved in teaching, leading improvisation clinics, and teaching jazz history classes.

Unfortunately, Nick Brignola passed away on February 8, 2002, after a long battle with cancer at the age of 65. Even after twenty-one years, his records remain highly sought after by collectors, and his unforgettable live performances continue to be cherished by jazz enthusiasts worldwide.

—Jordi Pujol (Taken from the inside liner notes of "This is It!" FSRCD 1672)