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Biography
Hamiet Bluiett (Brooklyn, Illinois, September 16, 1940 - October 4, 2018) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Bluiett co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet. He also played bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute. Bluiett also worked with Charles Mingus, Sam Rivers, Babatunde Olatunji, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye a.o..
Hamiet Bluiett was born just north of East St. Louis in Brooklyn, Illinois (also known as Lovejoy), a predominantly African-American village that had been founded as a free black refuge community in the 1830s, and which later became America's first majority-black town. As a child, he studied piano, trumpet, and clarinet, but was attracted most strongly to the baritone saxophone from the age of ten. He began his musical career by playing the clarinet for barrelhouse dances in Brooklyn, Illinois, before joining the Navy band in 1961. He attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
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