Charlie Rouse (April 6, 1924 – November 30, 1988) was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by his collaboration with Thelonious Monk, which lasted for more than ten years.
Rouse was born in Washington, D.C., United States. He attended Howard University, where he studied classical music and clarinet before taking up the tenor saxophone. Growing up in the District of Columbia, the milestones in Rouse's early career included sessions with two fellow Washingtonians, Billy Eckstine and Duke Ellington. He joined Eckstine's band at age 20, the veteran of extensive "wood-shedding" at a local club called the Crystal Cavern during his high school years.
Rouse was always a modern player and he also worked with the first Dizzy Gillespie big band (1945), making his recording debut with Tadd Dameron in 1947. Rouse popped up in a lot of important groups including Duke Ellington's Orchestra (1949-1950), Count Basie's octet (1950), on sessions with Clifford Brown in 1953, and with Oscar Pettiford's sextet (1955). He co-led the Jazz Modes with Julius Watkins (1956-1959), and he made a notable album with Paul Quinichette.(1957).
Ellington did feature Rouse in his 1950 Universal Pictures film short, Salute to Duke Ellington. Rouse may well have been the next Ellington tenor star (a place in history that went to Paul Gonsalves); however, he encountered catastrophe when the band was booked to tour Europe in spring of 1950. Rouse couldn't find his birth certificate and was summarily denied a passport. "There I was," he told Down Beat, "standing on the dock, waving goodbye to them."
He was a member of Thelonious Monk's quartet from 1959 to 1970. The Monk-Rouse combination turned out to be the rightest in music, easily the highlight of both careers. In 1961, the team switched from the smaller Riverside label to the big leagues at Columbia, and the '60s became the decade of international recognition-not to mention work-that Monk and Rouse had worked 20 years to achieve.
Both he and Monk had passed through the bebop era, Monk at its birth, Rouse at its zenith, but remained stylistic outsiders to its tenets, belonging as much to the domains of swing and mainstream. Just as Monk could appear at times art extension—and not necessarily a bebop extension—of Duke Ellington, Rouse identified his roots in Ben Webster. "Somebody's always saying I was influenced by this guy or that guy," Rouse said in a Down Beat interview in 1961, "but they never mention the guy who really influenced me—Ben Webster. I dig his sound so, the warm sound he gets on ballads."
During the 1970s he worked as a freelance, and recorded three albums as a leader. The album “Two is One” was recorded in 1974 for Strata East. He did “Moment’s Notice “in 1977 and enlisted the help of some top crack Brazilian locals for “Cinnamon Flower.” This was a highlight album for Rouse in that period, very well received. It wasn’t until 1979 when he formed the group Sphere, which was dedicated, at first, to playing Monk's compositions that he began to achieve the sort of recognition he deserved. The group, which became one of jazz's most sophisticated bands, recorded several albums, showcasing his distinctive, assured style.
.jpg)
In New York he worked regularly at the Village Vanguard, either as a member of Sphere, with an exceptional band jointly led by the pianist Mal Waldron, or with his own quartet. His most recent appearances in New York City were at the Village Vanguard, in 1986, and at Lincoln Center in August, where he played with a trio at a tribute for Tadd Dameron. He participated on Carmen McRae's classic Carmen Sings Monk album and his last recording was “Epistrophy,” (1988) from a Monk tribute concert. Rouse recorded over 25 albums with Monk, and over 12 as a leader.
Charlie Rouse died from lung cancer on November 30, 1988, at University Hospital in Seattle at the age of 64.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Jazz Profiles, All About Jazz & AllMusic)