Wilen Barney

French musician, a tenor saxophonist. He grew up in the USA, recorded with Roy Haynes (1954), and around 1955 appeared at the Club St.-Germain in Paris with Kenny Clarke, J.J. Johnson, Benny Golson, and Bud Powell. After recording with John Lewis in 1956, he worked again with Powell, 1957-1959. Wilen worked along with Miles Davis in the recording of the soundtrack to the film "L’ascenseur Pour L’échafaud," 1957 as well as recording with Milt Jackson, 1958 and Kenny Dorham, 1959. As a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers he worked on the soundtrack of the film "Dangerous Liaisons." Wilen lived in Africa from 1968 to 1973 and in 1977 returned to Nice. In 1982 he embraced jazz-rock, and experimented with a fusion of jazz and African rhythms; in his later work he favored a bop style that recalls his playing in the late 1950s. He married on 12 August 1976 and divorced on 6 October 1990. Died of cancer on 25 May 1996, Aubervilliers, France. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less