Even After Setbacks, a Musician Insists That the Show Will Go On

Earl Wilson/The New York TimesHamiet Bluiett, a baritone saxophonist, in Midtown. He will play at a show called “Cirque du Jazz” this weekend.

Hamiet Bluiett should not have even shown up, let alone picked up his musical instrument. He’s had two strokes in the past two months and his doctors have urged him to take it easy.

But when you’re a legendary jazz artist, who in a career spanning over half a century has performed alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Tito Puente and Stevie Wonder, it’s hard to say no.

Which is why he found himself the other day at the Manhattan headquarters of the Jazz Foundation of America rehearsing for a coming gig.

“My doctors are saying I shouldn’t be walking around or bending down, let alone playing my horn,” said Mr. Bluiett, 73, who is widely considered the world’s greatest baritone saxophonist. “I told them that they are going by what their machines are saying, and I’m going by what my body is saying, so the show will go on.”

That show, called “Cirque du Jazz,” will take place on Saturday night at Hudson Studios at 601 West 26th Street. It will also feature a host of other jazz notables, including the pianist and composer Randy Weston, the saxophonist Billy Harper and the multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar.

“Hamiet Bluiett is a spirit force of enormous inspiration,” Mr. El’Zabar said. “His five octave range on the baritone sax has made him a legend where young baritone players all over the world have sought his tutelage. The baritone sax is considered a somewhat difficult instrument for jazz, but Hamiet, the way he circular breathes endlessly, makes it look effortless.”

Mr. Bluiett, who was born in Brooklyn, Ill., grew up playing the piano, trumpet and clarinet, but did not begin playing the saxophone until he was 19.

“I wanted to play baritone; that was my favorite,” Mr. Bluiett said. “But I had to wait until I was big and strong enough to play it.” (The baritone saxophone, heavy and cumbersome, is one of the larger members of the saxophone family. It is bigger than the tenor saxophone and smaller than the bass.)

Mr. Bluiett joined the Navy band in 1961, serving and entertaining for the next five years. In his mid-20s, he became greatly influenced by the sounds of Harry Carney, the baritone player in the Duke Ellington band.

“I’ve had a great many musical influences in my life, but Harry Carney was probably the biggest,” he said.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Bluiett co-founded the Black Artists’ Group of St. Louis, an organization dedicated to showcasing and enhancing the talents of black musicians, filmmakers, poets and other artists. He led the group’s big band for two years before coming to New York in 1969.

“If you were a jazz musician, New York was the place to be,” he said.

In the ensuing years, Mr. Bluiett became the Babe Ruth of baritone. He joined popular jazz bands like the Charles Mingus Quintet and Sam Rivers’s large ensemble, and later co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet. He continued to jam with numerous bands, taught music to schoolchildren throughout the United States and has been hired as a design consultant by saxophone manufacturers around the world.

“The saxophone is a support instrument, but I have been fortunate enough to be recognized as someone who has stood out front in that supporting role,” Mr. Bluiett said. “In terms of the instrument I chose, I may have settled at the bottom of the totem pole, but I like to think of myself as being at the very top of that bottom. Now I’ve had my share of bad performances, but I don’t let disaster go to my heart the same way I don’t let praises go to my head.”

Mr. Bluiett, who is divorced and a great-grandfather and lives in Harlem, has fallen on hard times in recent years. While he continues to recover from his second stroke, he has not yet recovered financially from a fire in 2002 that destroyed his home, and most of his possessions.

During each setback, the Jazz Foundation of America â€" which holds benefit concerts like the Cirque du Jazz to raise money for struggling musicians â€" provided financial help for Mr. Bluiett. The foundation bought him new clothing and furniture after the fire and helped pay his medical bills during hospital stays after both strokes.

“The Jazz Foundation has assisted me all the way through,” Mr. Bluiett said. “They are always there when I need them, and they have helped many other jazz musicians in a time of need. I don’t know where we would be without them.”

Mr. Bluiett then went back to rehearsing. As he played, he was unaware that a well-known veteran jazz drummer named Billy Kaye, 82, had walked into the room.

“The kid still got it,” Mr. Kaye said. “He kind of makes you want to get up and dance.”