IN MEMORIAM: SAM BURTIS
SAM BURTIS (OCTOBER 2, 1948 – DECEMBER 29, 2023)
A trombonist, tubist, arranger, bandleader, and contributor to the dynastic legacy of Mingus Music, in a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Burtis said of Mingus Music:
“Mingus’ music isn’t about the notes—it’s about the emotional content of the music to a much larger degree than almost any other musician. If you write down Mingus’ music, you only have an eighth of it—you have to have the played music to understand how it was. With Mingus’ music, you have to play like yourself—if you have generic jazz players, it doesn’t work. It’s not about ‘now we’ll have a tenor solo’—it’s ‘now we’ll have a Booker Ervin solo’”
Collaborations include: Mingus Epitaph, directed by Gunther Schuller, 1989 (recorded and released on Columbia records), 1990, 2007; Mingus Superband, 1989 directed by Jimmy Knepper; Mingus Big Band ’93 - Nostalgia in Times Square (trombone, transcription-arrangements of “Weird Nightmare” and “Mingus Fingers”, soloist on “Invisible Lady”)
A wealth of personal tributes to Burtis can be found here, on an internet trombone forum to which he frequently contributed: https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?t=34158
Sam Burtis plays “Invisible Lady” with Mingus Big Band in 1992
