Tony Campise

Anthony Sebastian Campise (January 22, 1943 – March 7, 2010) was an American jazz musician. He primarily played tenor saxophone and flute though he was a multireedist who also used clarinet and oboe. He was known for his exceptional technique and fluid style on all reed instruments; Campise is most recognized for his association with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the mid-1970s.

Musical education, style, and first work in Houston Campise was born and raised in Houston, Texas and early on had studied with Hal Tennyson at the age of 13 on alto sax and clarinet. He also studied with the famed Woody Herman jazz sideman Jerry Coker learning improvisation when he was 18, Campise also studied briefly with Lee Konitz. He studied flute and oboe extensively with Byron and Barbara Hester in the 1960s; most notably he studied flute with Julius Baker in New York during the late 1960s in hopes of becoming a classical flutist.

His formal musical education came in his college years while attending Sam Houston State University, the University of Houston, Houston Baptist College, and Monterey Peninsula College during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Campise's saxophone style was eloquent, warm, and personal on ballads while muscular on up tempo jazz pieces (and sometimes quite frenetic); he was a devotee of the "Texas Tenor" jazz styles of Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet. The more modern and avant-garde influence he demonstrates on the recordings with Stan Kenton show how influenced he was by saxophonist Eric Dolphy. He was a native of Houston, Texas and developed a musical style and career there but eventually settled to Austin, Texas in 1984.

The influences Campise most closely attributed his own style to are jazz artists Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Lennie Tristano, and Eric Dolphy. Starting in early 1974 Campise started on the road with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the lead alto saxophone chair and recorded as a featured soloist the on LPs Stan Kenton Plays Chicago (1974), and Fire, Fury & Fun (1975). As noted by Stan Kenton, Campise was very popular with the public as a featured soloist during that time. Kenton himself is also quoted, "...Campise has such tremendous technique he can't help but use it. He would take a lot of wild chances and scare guys to death, the things he would get going on that horn."

Campise died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He had never fully recovered from an October 2009 fall outside a Corpus Christi, Texas hotel, when he hit the back of his head.

Discography Tony Campise (Ram/American Record Co., 1980) Picture This (American Record Co., 1980) First Takes (Heart, 1990) Once in a Blue Moon (Heart, 1991) Ballads, Blues & Bebop (Heart, 1993) Ballads, Blues, Bebop & Beyond (Heart, 1994) Strange Beauty (Heart, 1995)