Carl Grubbs
Carl Gordon Grubbs (July 27, 1944 in Philadelphia; January 5, 2024 in Baltimore) was an American jazz musician (saxophone, composition). Carl Grubbs, who played alto, but later also soprano and tenor saxophone, received some lessons from John Coltrane in 1958 (and also later) together with his brother Earl Grubbs (d. 1989). The connection was established through their cousin Naima, Coltrane’s wife. Coltrane’s style had a major influence on the music of the band The Visitors, which the brothers founded in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. The quintet also included pianist Sid Simmons, drummer John Goldsmith, and the young bassist Stanley Clarke. Grubbs recorded a total of four albums with the band for Muse Records between 1972 and 1975: Rebirth, In My Youth, Neptune, and Motherland.
After the band’s dissolution, Carl Grubbs continued to work as a jazz musician, including with Julius Hemphill, as well as a composer and music educator. From the 1980s onward, he played with his own band, Carl Grubbs and Friends, with whom he also toured Colombia and Brazil. He later founded his own label, B&C Productions. He recorded his composition “The Inner Harbor Suite,” which received critical acclaim in Down Beat, live at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1994.
As a music educator, Grubbs worked in public schools and held numerous workshops on jazz improvisation in Baltimore. For his achievements, he was awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1983 and 1985. Since 1997, he and his wife Barbara have been directors of SAX: Summer Music & Dance Camp. In 2004, he played with Odean Pope (Two Dreams). In 2016, Grubbs self-published Inner Harbor Suite Revisited. He continued to perform with his own groups as late as 2020. He died of pneumonia.