Junior Mance

Julian Mance, Jr. – born October 10, 1928 in Evanston, Illinois – was a hard bop jazz pianist better known as Junior Mance. At the age of 5, he began playing an upright piano, learning stride piano and boogie-woogie from his father. At 10, his first professional performance was in Chicago, subbing for an ill musician in his neighbor’s band. He was encouraged to study medicine and attended Roosevelt College, but left before finishing his first year. He had met tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons in 1947 and began playing with him in Chicago, recording an album with him later that year. Discovered by saxophonist Lester Young while watching a live performance by Ammons, Mance began a two year period of playing live with Young’s group. Mance was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951 and served two years before being discharged in 1953. He began working at the Bee Hive Jazz Club in Chicago, playing with jazz luminaries like Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Stitt, and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. Mance relocated to New York, performing and recording with Dinah Washington and Cannonball Adderley. More sessions and live engagements came with Johnny Griffin, James Moody, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, and Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra. Signing with Verve Records, he released Junior, his first album as a leader, in 1959. Throughout the 1960s, Mance released a series of well-received albums on the Jazzland, Riverside, Capitol, Tuba, and Atlantic labels. The 1964 album The Soul of Hollywood saw him play with a large orchestra conducted by Melba Liston. As the musical landscape changed in the ‘60s, he began to experiment with soul jazz, jazz funk and fusion. He continued to perform and record, notably with double bass player Martin Rivera, or solo for the Sackville, Enja and Chiaroscuro labels. From 1990 to 2009, he participated in the 100 Gold Fingers collective and performed regularly with his trio at Café Loup in New York. He taught at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music for over 20 years, retiring in 2011. His final album to be released during his lifetime was My Fans, It's All About (2015). Junior Mance died on January 16, 2021, at the age of 92.