Biography
28 September 1931, Summit, Mississippi, USA, d. 20 August 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Growing up in Chicago, Gilmore became fascinated by the sound of the tenor saxophone. He was given a clarinet which he learned to play, graduating to the saxophone. Between 1948 and 1952 he was in the air force, and played clarinet and started on tenor saxophone while stationed in San Antonio, Texas. After leaving the air force he worked for the US postal service for a while, then decided to take a chance on earning a living as a musician. When the Harlem Globetrotters toured America in 1952, music was supplied by pianist Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines with Gilmore in the band, playing tenor saxophone. In 1953 he joined Sun Ra, then leading a trio, an association that was to last many decades, interrupted only by a short spell in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (1964-65), when he replaced Wayne Shorter. Outside of his work with Sun Ra, Gilmore has recorded with McCoy...
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