Hal Stein

Harold Jerome Stein (September 5, 1928 in Weehawken, New Jersey – April 27, 2008 in Oakland, California) was an American jazz musician and bebop saxophone player. Stein began performing on the tenor saxophone in the early 1940s in New York City. As a teen he frequently sat in with Don Byas, whom he considered a mentor, and Erroll Garner, at The Three Deuces on 52nd Street. In 1945 he was featured in concert with pianist Teddy Wilson at Town Hall (although he had recently completed high school, he was billed as a high school student to make more of a sensation) on the same bill with Byas, Stuff Smith, and Charlie Parker. During the same year, Stein recorded with Doc Pomus, Tab Smith and Leonard Feather. He went on to work with Gene Krupa, Buddy Morrow, Les Elgart, Artie Shaw, Charles Mingus, Rudy Williams, Roy Haynes, Georgie Auld, Claude Thornhill, J. C. Heard and others. He also played the alto saxophone, recording on it with Al Cohn on Broadway (1954), in his own session with Warren Fitzgerald, Bob Dorough, Paul Motian and Alphonso Cotton (1955), on The Teddy Charles Tentet album (1956), and as one of the Four Altos with Juilliard buddy Phil Woods, Sahib Shihab and Gene Quill (1957). The record made with Fitzgerald was reissued decades later after becoming something of a cult classic in Japan. He studied at Juilliard during 1950-51. During his stint in the Army jazz band in Japan during the Korean War (1951–1953), he was a regular member of Toshiko Akiyoshi's quartet. When he decided to go back to college in the late-1950s he realized that the GI bill would not cover the cost of completing his degree at Juilliard, so he switched to Manhattan School of Music, where he achieved his master's degree in 1960. Stein embarked on a career as an educator, while continuing to perform regularly. During the 1960s he taught in public schools in New York and California. Starting in the 1970s, he taught at Stanford University, Mills College, University of California at San Franc