John Gilmore
John Gilmore (September 28, 1931 – August 20, 1995 Summit, MS) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and percussionist. He was known for his tenure with the avant-garde keyboardist/bandleader Sun Ra from the 1950s to the 1990s, and led The Sun Ra Arkestra from Sun Ra’s death in 1993 until his own death in 1995.
In the late 1950s Gilmore co-led a band with Clifford Jordan while simultaneously playing with Arkestra. In 1957 this ensemble recorded a Blue Note session which resulted in the album Blowing in from Chicago. The rhythm section featured Horace Silver, Curly Russell, and Art Blakey. During this period Gilmore also performed with jazz drummer Wilbur Campbell (1958), trumpeter Miles Davis (1959), saxophonist Johnny Griffin (1959), singer Dinah Washington (1959), and pianist Andrew Hill (1959); the latter of whom he had gone to school with as a boy in Chicago.