Pittsburgh's blind white alto saxophonist Eric Kloss
(1949)
debuted as a leader at the age of 16 in an old-fashioned hard-bop vein.
He began to composed his material on albums such as
Sky Shadows (august 1968), featuring a quintet with guitarist Pat Martino, pianist Jaki Byard, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Jack DeJohnette,
and
In the Land of the Giants (january 1969), replacing the guitar with a tenor saxophone,
and he attained an original pop and funk fusion when he coopted
Miles Davis' rhythm section of keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and DeJohnette for To Hear Is To See (july 1969).
More adventurous music surfaced in
the 18-minute suite One Two Free, off
One Two Free (august 1972), for saxophone,
guitar (Pat Martino), keyboardis, bass (Dave Holland) and drums,
and on the lengthy jams of Essence (december 1974).
Kloss stopped recording in 1981.
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