American jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz was born in Baltimore and studied at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. From 1962-64 he was a member of Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop. During the 1960s he also played live with Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach. His first appearance on record was on the album 'Soul Finger' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1965.
When McCoy Tyner formed his Expansions band in 1968 Bartz was recruited on alto sax. Bartz released three influential solo albums in the late 1960s, 'Another Earth' (1968), Home' (1969) and 'Libra' (1969). In the early 1970s he joined Miles Davis' band and featured on the 1971 'Live-Evil' double album.
At this time Bartz also formed the Gary Bartz Ntu Troop, an experimental band fusing jazz, soul, funk, folk and African music. Their influential albums included 1971's 'Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru' and 'Juju Street Songs' in 1972.
Bartz had a number of successful solo albums, merging jazz, funk and disco, including 'I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies' (1973), 'Juju Man' (1976), the 1977 classic 'Music Is My Sanctuary' and 'Reflections of Monk' (1988). His later albums include 'Red & Orange Poems' in 1995 and 'Coltrane Rules: Tao of a Music Warrior' in 2012.
