Hal Stein

Who was Hal Stein?

Hal Stein was an American jazz musician and Bebop saxophone player. He died of lung cancer on April 27, 2008 in his home in Oakland, CA, at the age of 79.

Stein began performing on the tenor saxophone in the early 1940s in New York City. As a teen he frequently sat in with Don Byas, who he considered a mentor, and Erroll Garner at The Three Deuces on 52nd Street. In 1945 he was featured in concert with pianist Teddy Wilson at Town Hall on the same bill with Byas, Stuff Smith, and Charlie Parker. During the same year, Stein recorded with Doc Pomus, Tab Smith and Leonard Feather. He went on to work with Gene Krupa, Buddy Morrow, Les Elgart, Artie Shaw, Charles Mingus, Rudy Williams, Roy Haynes, Georgie Auld, Claude Thornhill, J. C. Heard and others. He also played the alto saxophone, recording on it with Al Cohn, in his own session with Warren Fitzgerald, on "Word From Bird" with the Teddy Charles Tentet and as one of the "Four Altos" with Phil Woods, Sahib Shihab and Gene Quill. The record made with Fitzgerald was reissued decades later after becoming something of a cult classic in Japan.