John Tchicai

Biography

John Tchicai was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer whose lyrical, measured alto and later tenor playing linked European improvisation with the New York avant-garde. In New York in the 1960s he co-founded the *New York Contemporary Five* and the *New York Art Quartet*, and played on *John Coltrane*'s 'Ascension'. Back in Denmark he led *Cadentia Nova Danica*, taught widely, and recorded prolifically until his death in Perpignan in 2012.