Junior Mance, jazz pianist and educator, dies at 92
Born in Evanston, Ill., on Oct. 10, 1928, Mance got his start playing with Gene Ammons in Chicago when he was 19. From there, Mance went on to record with Lester Young and Sonny Stitt.
In 1951, Mance was drafted by the U.S. Army, where he met Cannonball Adderley and joined him in the 36th Army Band in Fort Knox, Ky. He was discharged after two years and returned to Chicago, where he joined the house band at the Bee Hive jazz club and backed up well-known names including Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.
After a year, Mance moved to New York and scored gigs with Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley, Johnny Griffin, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong.
Mance landed his first recording contract as a leader in 1959. Forming a trio with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Lex Humphries, he released his debut album Junior with Verve Records. Mance then went on to record albums for Capitol, Atlantic, Sackville, Enja and a number of other labels over the course of more than 50 years. He retired in 2011.