Big Nick Nicholas

b. George Walker Nicholas, 2 August 1922, Lansing, Michigan, USA, d. 29 Oct 1997, NEW YORK, NY, USA. Nicholas used the tenor saxophone during his teenage years, having previously analyzed piano and clarinet. Among his teenage co-workers had been Hank and Thad Jones. In the first 40s Nicholas worked well in a few well-known and essential rings, including those led by Earl Hines and Tiny Bradshaw. He was also mixed up in early experimental times of bop, playing at Mintons. In the past due 40s he performed in the rings of Sabby Lewis and Lucky Millinder, and was an associate of Dizzy Gillespie’s big music group, with which he documented in 1947, soloing on ‘Manteca’. In the 50s Nicholas performed regularly in NY, often as innovator of small organizations, but by the finish of the 10 years his career is at the doldrums, a predicament that persisted to the end from the 60s. In the first 70s Nicholas started attracting more interest both like a performer and instructor, and later started touring internationally, though it will be 1983 before he produced his first recording under his personal name. Nicholas’ old age were spent mainly around NY, playing golf club engagements. Nicholas used a warm, wealthy sound where could be noticed echoes of his admiration for Coleman Hawkins. He also made up, his best-known function becoming ‘Big Nick’, a melody documented by John Coltrane on the 1962 recording with Duke Ellington. Nicholas’ few albums as innovator, allied to periodic solo places on information with Millinder, Gillespie, Oran ‘Warm Lips’ Web page, with whom he previously an extended professional association in the past due 40s and early 50s, display him to have already been a player worth much better prominence than was accorded him during his life time.