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Tributes are paid to jazz musician Paul Horn

Tributes are paid to jazz musician Paul Horn

TRIBUTES have been paid to the jazz musician Paul Horn who passed away at the age of 84.

Although his primary instrument was the flute, Mr. Horn was a gifted musician who, from an early age, had mastered a range of other instruments including the piano, clarinet and saxophone.

Born in New York, he first developed his love of jazz during jamming sessions in the clubs of Washington where the family had moved to. After gaining a Bachelors of Music Degree, the young Horn had a chance to use his flute-playing skills during a three-year stint in the U.S. Army’s Field Band. 

Military service was followed by a spell playing in a big band outfit in New York but it was jazz which was to be his guiding light and he was soon off to California to play with the Chico Hamilton Quintet.

He would go on to perform with the likes of Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington and Tony Bennett as well as recording many critically acclaimed albums which included early works such as Inside The Taj Mahal (see below) and Inside The Great Pyramid — which owed their genesis to his study of transcendental meditation alongside the Beatles with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. These albums were to help earn him the nickname as ‘the father of new age music’.

During his long career, Mr. Horn recorded 50 albums. He won two Grammys — for best original jazz composition and photographic cover — in 1966 for Jazz Suite On The Mass Texts. In later years he received several more Grammy nominations.

Mr. Horn passed away in Vancouver following a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Ann Mortifee (see below), sons Robin and Marlen, and stepson Devon.

In a statement the family said they had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of “love and support” they had received from people around the world. They said these people “had admired him as a musician and respected him as a man of great integrity and deep philosophical principles”.

To hear a brief excerpt from Inside The Taj Mahal, click here.

To view an interview in which Mr. Horn and his wife Ann Mortifee talk about finding love later in life, click here.

To view part of The Story of Jazz, which features Mr. Horn, click here.

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