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Ed Summerlin
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Ed Summerlin
Edgar Eugene Summerlin (September 1, 1928 – October 10, 2006) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator known for pioneering Liturgical jazz, avant-garde jazz, and free jazz.
Born on September 1, 1928 in Marianna, Florida, and raised primarily in Missouri (in the towns of Gasconade, Brunswick, and Lexington, respectively), Summerlin was the second of four children born to Velma and William Edgar Summerlin. In 1940, he began attending Lexington Junior-Senior High School, and was promptly elected president of the 7th grade. Summerlin graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music Education (alongside his then wife, Virginia, receiving her bachelor of science); the following year, he earned a Master of Music from the Eastman School. He subsequently free-lanced for approximately half a decade, including stints with bandleaders Sonny Dunham, Ted Weems, and Tony Pastor. In 1958, after learning about the University of North Texas College of Music while performing with the Johnny Long Band, Summerlin enrolled as a graduate student and became a member of Lab Band and also assisted Gene Hall in teaching jazz composition, theory, and saxophone.
On January 27, 1959, while a graduate student at the University of North Texas College of Music, Summerlin, along with his then wife, Mary Elizabeth, suffered the horribly untimely, but evidently not unforeseen passing of their less-than-10-month-old daughter, attributed by attending physician Thomas V. Patterson to "congestive heart failure due to congenital heart disease." Shortly thereafter, acting on the suggestion of Bill Slack, Jr., Assistant Pastor of the First Methodist Church of Denton (who had been a great comfort to the Summerlins in the weeks leading up to their daughter's death), Summerlin composed Requiem for Mary Jo, which has long been regarded as one of the first significant uses of jazz in a liturgical service.
He performed Requiem for Mary Jo May 20, 1959, during a service in the chapel at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Dr. Roger Ellwood Ortmayer (1916–1984), then of the Perkins School, had commissioned the work.
That same year, still studying and teaching at North Texas, Summerlin recorded his debut LP, Liturgical Jazz, on which "Requiem for Mary Jo," was the heartbreaking centerpiece.
Saturday night, February 13, 1960, NBC's World Wide 60 (hosted by Chet Huntley) visited Denton to air the story of Ed Summerlin's liturgical jazz (national broadcast, NBC, Friday, February 19, 1960).
Summerlin's grieving and spiritual creativity inspired him to compose other liturgical jazz pieces, including
At the same time, his well-publicized prime time television debut was followed by several Sunday morning appearances throughout the 1960s on the long-running CBS series, Look Up and Live, collaborating with musicians such as Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Don Ellis, Slide Hampton, and Ron Carter, as well as choreographer Anna Sokolow. During this decade, Summerlin also scored two feature films, the little-known 1963 Bay of Pigs-inspired drama, We Shall Return (which, coincidentally, featured the first and only original screenplay by oft-adapted novelist Pat Frank) and the even lesser known 1967 film Ciao (written and directed by the earlier film's editor, David Tucker), which, after becoming the only U.S. feature film to be entered in that year's Venice Film Festival, failed to find a distributor and quickly disappeared from view.
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Ed Summerlin
Edgar Eugene Summerlin (September 1, 1928 – October 10, 2006) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator known for pioneering Liturgical jazz, avant-garde jazz, and free jazz.
Born on September 1, 1928 in Marianna, Florida, and raised primarily in Missouri (in the towns of Gasconade, Brunswick, and Lexington, respectively), Summerlin was the second of four children born to Velma and William Edgar Summerlin. In 1940, he began attending Lexington Junior-Senior High School, and was promptly elected president of the 7th grade. Summerlin graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music Education (alongside his then wife, Virginia, receiving her bachelor of science); the following year, he earned a Master of Music from the Eastman School. He subsequently free-lanced for approximately half a decade, including stints with bandleaders Sonny Dunham, Ted Weems, and Tony Pastor. In 1958, after learning about the University of North Texas College of Music while performing with the Johnny Long Band, Summerlin enrolled as a graduate student and became a member of Lab Band and also assisted Gene Hall in teaching jazz composition, theory, and saxophone.
On January 27, 1959, while a graduate student at the University of North Texas College of Music, Summerlin, along with his then wife, Mary Elizabeth, suffered the horribly untimely, but evidently not unforeseen passing of their less-than-10-month-old daughter, attributed by attending physician Thomas V. Patterson to "congestive heart failure due to congenital heart disease." Shortly thereafter, acting on the suggestion of Bill Slack, Jr., Assistant Pastor of the First Methodist Church of Denton (who had been a great comfort to the Summerlins in the weeks leading up to their daughter's death), Summerlin composed Requiem for Mary Jo, which has long been regarded as one of the first significant uses of jazz in a liturgical service.
He performed Requiem for Mary Jo May 20, 1959, during a service in the chapel at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Dr. Roger Ellwood Ortmayer (1916–1984), then of the Perkins School, had commissioned the work.
That same year, still studying and teaching at North Texas, Summerlin recorded his debut LP, Liturgical Jazz, on which "Requiem for Mary Jo," was the heartbreaking centerpiece.
Saturday night, February 13, 1960, NBC's World Wide 60 (hosted by Chet Huntley) visited Denton to air the story of Ed Summerlin's liturgical jazz (national broadcast, NBC, Friday, February 19, 1960).
Summerlin's grieving and spiritual creativity inspired him to compose other liturgical jazz pieces, including
At the same time, his well-publicized prime time television debut was followed by several Sunday morning appearances throughout the 1960s on the long-running CBS series, Look Up and Live, collaborating with musicians such as Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Don Ellis, Slide Hampton, and Ron Carter, as well as choreographer Anna Sokolow. During this decade, Summerlin also scored two feature films, the little-known 1963 Bay of Pigs-inspired drama, We Shall Return (which, coincidentally, featured the first and only original screenplay by oft-adapted novelist Pat Frank) and the even lesser known 1967 film Ciao (written and directed by the earlier film's editor, David Tucker), which, after becoming the only U.S. feature film to be entered in that year's Venice Film Festival, failed to find a distributor and quickly disappeared from view.