Blaise Siwula

Creative improvising saxophonist Blaise Siwula was born February 19, 1950, in Detroit, Michigan, growing up in a middle-class Black neighborhood. His next-door neighbor practiced saxophone in the afternoon and occasionally allowed him inside to watch him play. Involved with the arts all his life, he began studying the alto sax at the age of 14, playing in his middle-school concert band. Hearing John Coltrane's LP Om in 1969, he felt compelled to take the tenor saxophone and make his voice heard on it. Siwula was influenced by hearing Art Pepper in San Francisco, as well as Orn...