Ep 088 - Antonio Hart; Mentorship from Jimmy Heath and other jazz legends

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part series with Antonio Hart. The 1st part, episode 86, was all about jazz history. You can check that out on our site saxophonepodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

For this episode, we went deeper into Antonio’s own story. His influences, thought processes and more.

Antonio Hart is a Grammy-nominated Alto Saxophonist, Composer, and Educator, who regularly performs with the Dave Holland Band and the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, along with his own group.

He spent three years performing and recording with the late great Roy Hargrove, and has been a guest on over 100 recordings.

He has recorded 8 CD’s as a leader, and his latest CD is called Blessings.

He currently is a full-time Professor at The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

His journey in music started when music programs were cut at his school in Baltimore, Maryland. He had to find a way to pass the audition to get into the High School for Performing Arts or else he would have no avenue to continue pursuing music.

Luckily for the jazz world, he did pass the audition, and it was the life lessons he learned in that school, along with the values and strong mentorship from the late great Jimmy Heath that propelled Antonio to create Grammy-nominated records, perform with some of the greatest legends of Jazz, and direct the Jazz Studies program at Queens College.

The link to his full biography, along with more Resources for this episode, is on our website.

In this interview, we talked about: 

• Martial arts, and how his passion for it influences his approach to music
• How he’s felt he had to “come from behind” in order to push himself further with music
• The mentorship from Jimmy Heath, and how it’s impacted every aspect of his life
• Stories from Jimmy Heath’s heyday, performing and hanging out with other jazz legends
• What Miles Davis’ voice really sounded like before he damaged his vocal cords
• His approach to tone – he went into this extensively
• And so much more!

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