Along with Stan Getz, Sims came to prominence as part of Woody Herman's Four Brothers sax section. A Lester Young disciple, but with a fibrous, vibratoless tone all his own, Sims was one of the most unaffected, relaxed and naturally swinging improvisers in jazz history. With a style more rooted in the swing era than other swing-to-boppers, Sims made it all look easy.
Born in Inglewood, Calif., on Oct. 29, 1925, Sims was a self-taught musician whose parents had a vaudeville act called Pete and Kate. He dropped out of high school to apprentice with the big bands, joining Bobby Sherwood at age 17, then went on to a year with Benny Goodman, followed by an engagement at Cafe Society in New York, with Bill Harris, before joining the Army. A second stint with Goodman and a period with Sid Catlett was followed by his career-making tenure with Herman (1947-'49).
After Herman, Sims freelanced, playing for extended periods with Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, Miles Davis, Artie Shaw and Elliott Lawrence. A featured soloist in Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band, Sims played the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels with Goodman, and visited the Soviet Union with Goodman in 1962.
Though he performed Alec Wilder's "Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra" with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (1976), for the most part Sims was uninterested in ambitious projects, preferring to improvise on standards and jazz tunes, particularly with his Four Brothers mate, Al Cohn. Beginning in 1957, Cohn and Sims were a perennial club and festival attraction.
In the 1970s, Sims took up the soprano saxophone, on which he played romantic ballads. His albums during the last 10 years of his career, particularly If I'm Lucky (1977), with Jimmy Rowles, and Zoot Sims And The Gershwin Brothers (1975) with Oscar Peterson (both on Old Jazz Classics), are exemplary. Sims died in New York on March 23, 1985.
In 1985, Sims was elected by the Critics into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.
Source: ~www.downbeat.com
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