Herbie Mann Dies After Long Bout With Prostate Cancer
Had Helped Spread Awareness of Disease Through Music Foundation
SANTA FE, N.M., July 2, 2003 — Herbie Mann, who helped bring jazz flute and the bossa nova to prominence, has died after a long bout with inoperable prostate cancer. He was 73.
Mann passed away in his sleep on Tuesday at his cabin in Pecos, New Mexico, near his home in Santa Fe, where he had lived since the 1980s. Mann is survived by his wife, Susan Janeal Arison, two sons and two daughters, his mother, and a sister. Arison and three of his children were at his side.
Herbie was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 16, 1930, as Herbert Jay Solomon.
His mother encouraged Mann's musical development by taking him to a Benny Goodman concert at the Paramount when he was nine years old. Mann started playing the clarinet soon after, and later turned to the tenor saxophone, and eventually to the instrument with which he was identified, the flute.
By the time Mann was fourteen, he was playing tenor sax at gigs in the Catskills. In 1948 he entered the US Army where he spent nearly four years in Trieste, Italy, playing with the 98th Army Band.
Mann returned to New York after the army, but found it difficult to stand out as a tenor saxophonist. But when accordionist Mat Matthews told Mann that he was looking for a jazz flute player for the first album by the then unknown Carmen McRae, Mann quickly taught himself the flute and recorded with McRae.
In 1958, legendary jazz DJ Symphony Sid Torin suggested that Mann add a conga player to his group, which quickly boosted Mann's popularity. Percussionists who played with him in the late 1950's and early 1960's included Candido, Ray Barretto, Olatunji, Potato Valdes, and Willie Bobo.
In 1961, Mann joined a tour of American musicians going to Brazil, introducing him to more complex melodies and rhythms. Mann then made an extended visit to Brazil to record his next album for Atlantic Records, during which he met talents such as Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Baden Powell.
Mann brought the sounds of world music to his recordings before the term was even used, and was a pioneer of fusion, with his 1969 album Memphis Underground, and his 1970's group "Family of Mann".
Mann continued to record throughout his career, but his dabbling in pop, rock, reggae, and disco during the 1970's, and a move away from the sounds that had made him popular, led to the end of his 20-year contract with Atlantic.
In the ensuing years, Mann recorded for several independent labels, including two albums on the Lightyear label from a 1995 celebration of his 65th birthday. Celebration and America Brasil feature many of his longtime friends and musical partners from his past, including David "Fathead" Newman, Dave Valentin, Ron Carter, Billy Taylor, Tito Puente, Randy Brecker, Claudio Roditi, and others.
Mann's last live performance was May 3 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Mann was Downbeat's flutist of the year for 13 years straight, beginning in the late 1950's.
In 1997, Herbie was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. Mann formed a nonprofit foundation called Herbie Mann's Prostate Cancer Awareness Music Foundation that used performances and recordings to help spread the word about the disease.
Mann will be cremated. The family is planning a private memorial service on Sunday.
NPR will feature obituary pieces on Wednesday's All Things Considered and Thursday's Morning Edition. Many stations will also air rebroadcasts of Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center: Tribute to Herbie Mann from July, 2001, and Herbie Mann on Jazz Profiles from April 2000. 
