Pat Patrick

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Laurdine Kenneth Patrick Jr., known as Pat Patrick, was born in 1929 in East Moline, Illinois. He played baritone saxophone, alto saxophone and electric bass and was known for his forty-year association with Sun Ra. As a child he learned piano, drums and trumpet before switching to saxophone. At DuSable High School in Chicago he met the future bassist Richard Davis and the saxophonists John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan. Even at school he was the baritone saxophonist in the house band of the Regal Theater.

Music and breakthrough

Around 1950 Patrick first played in a Sun Ra band, and from 1954 he was a permanent member of the Arkestra. In 1961 the Arkestra moved to New York, where the musicians lived together in communal houses. Patrick also played with John Coltrane, including on Africa/Brass in 1961, with Blue Mitchell, with Mongo Santamaría and, in the early 1970s, with Thelonious Monk. He wrote Yeh, Yeh, which Santamaría recorded. In 1972 he co-founded the Baritone Saxophone Retinue, a group with several baritone saxophonists and a rhythm section, which recorded two albums for Saturn Records.

Influence

Patrick was a well-trained, versatile soloist and ensemble player. Besides baritone saxophone he played flute, bass and percussion. He toured Europe with Sun Ra in 1970 and 1976, taught at the State University of New York at Old Westbury and returned to the Arkestra from 1986 to 1988. He died of leukaemia in 1991. His son Deval Patrick became governor of Massachusetts.

Listening

In School of Rock

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