On the evening of January 17th, Junior Mance left a life in music with his devoted wife and manager at his side, a career that was legendary and spanned more than 80 years. I met Junior through his connection to teaching, introduced to us at Litchfield Jazz Camp by two talented saxophonists, mentees of Junior’s at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. At New School, each or these young men took whatever course Junior was offering. One took the same course three times and was not dissuaded when Junior told him, “An A is the highest grade I can give you and you’ve already earned that twice.” In his humility, Junior didn’t appreciate what the aspiring jazzer did : Junior was the course.
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1928. The “Junior” moniker used by the family to differentiate him from his dad and teacher (he taught a five year old Junior stride piano on the family’s upright) stuck and went with him throughout his professional life. That life began at age ten when a neighbor asked him to sit in for his group’s ailing pianist. After a stint in the Army during the Korean War, Mance was off and running and never stopped until advanced age determined he must five years ago.
When you write a bio of a musician you shop through his discography to find a handful of luminaries to do the obligatory “and he played with yada, yada.” I couldn’t do that with Junior. His discography is not star-studded, its paveed! Junior Mance quite literally played and performed with everyone! Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Max Roach, Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, his young proteges Andrew Hadro and Albert Rivera (now busy saxophonists who head up operations at Litchfield Jazz Camp), and zillions more!
I met Junior for the first time during his long-term Sunday night gig at Café Loup in New York’s West Village where his trio played until his retirement in 2016. I invited him then and there to teach for us at Litchfield Jazz Camp and he graciously accepted. He served there for three summers and developed a whole other fan club of up-and-coming young musicians who will never forget they got to the chance to learn at the knee of the great Junior Mance.
Junior Mance was 92.
…Vita Muir, January 18, 2021