John McNeil, an influential and beloved jazz trumpeter, composer, improviser, and educator who was a graduate student in the early 1970s at what was then the School of Music at the University of Miami, passed away on Sept. 27th. He was 76.
McNeil studied under Jerry Coker, the jazz program’s first director, according to Whit Sidener (B.M. ’69 and M.M. ’72), a saxophonist and Coker student who succeeded him as leader of the jazz program. It is unclear if McNeil finished his graduate studies at the University of Miami.
Born in 1948 in the small town of Yreka, California, McNeil overcame various severely challenging physical disorders. As a young child, leg problems and a twisted spine forced him to endure braces and bullying until he had surgery at 16. At age 10, McNeil was so inspired by seeing Louis Armstrong perform on television that he taught himself to play trumpet and read music; he began playing professionally right after high school.
After studies at the University of Portland and the University of Miami, McNeil arrived in New York City in 1974, where he became part of the underground music scene and played with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band. His career took off when he beat out 10 of the city’s best jazz trumpeters to join the Horace Silver Quintet. McNeil went on to record 20 albums as a leader or co-leader and also served as a producer, composer, and arranger for numerous recordings.
A rare genetic disorder of the nervous system that affected the muscles of his face kept McNeil from playing for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He made a comeback in 1997 and another in 2013 but had again stepped away from performing in recent years.
He was revered by his fellow musicians and acclaimed by critics. A Downbeat obituary observed that “his virtuosity as a player was unimpeachable and his imagination as an improviser was vast.” The New York Times’s Ben Ratliff called McNeil “one of the best improvisers working in jazz” and praised his “astonishing harmonic acuity and a uniquely liquid, even sound.”
McNeil was also a beloved educator who taught at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) from 1980 to 2022, where he was known for his dry humor. “John McNeil… was one of the cornerstones of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department,” NEC Jazz Studies Department Co-Chair Ken Schaphorst said in a tribute published by NEC. “His ability to connect with students and teach them the foundations of the jazz languages while at the same time encouraging each student to develop their own individual voice may be unmatched.”
McNeil is survived by his partner of 40 years, trombonist Lolly Bienenfeld.
