Rouse, Charlie
[Charles] (Washington, 6 April 1924 - Seattle, 30 Nov 1988)
Tenor saxophonist
He studied clarinet before taking up tenor saxophone. He
played in the bop big bands of Billy Eckstine (1944)
and Dizzy Gillespie (1945), but made his first recordings as a soloist only in
1947, with Tadd Dameron and
Fats Navarro. After playing rhythm-and-blues in Washington
and New York, he was a member of
the Duke Ellington Orchestra (1949-50) and Count Basie's
octet (1950). He took part in Clifford Brown's first recordings in 1953, then
worked with Bennie Green (1955) and played in Oscar Pettiford's
sextet (c. 1955); with Julius Watkins, also one of Pettiford's
sidemen, he led Les Modes (later the Jazz Modes), a bop quintet (1956-9). He
joined Buddy Rich briefly before playing in Thelonious
Monk's quartet (1959-70), the association for which he is best known. During
the 1970s he worked as a freelance, and recorded three albums as a leader. In
the early 1980s he was a member and joint leader of the quartet Sphere, which
was dedicated to the performance of Monk's music; he performed in Wynton Marsalis's group at the
Concord Jazz Festival (California)
in 1987 and the following year recorded compositions by Monk in San
Francisco with Carmen McRae. In the 1960s Rouse adapted
his style to Monk's work, improvising with greater deliberation than most bop
tenor saxophonists, and restating melodies often. His distinctive solo playing
with Monk may be heard on Shuffle Boil (1964), in which he alternates
reiterations of the principal thematic motif with formulaic bop runs.
Barry
Kernfeld
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, © Macmillan Reference Ltd
1988