Herbie Mann

As demonstrated over the jazz great’s five-decade career, Herbie Mann’s mastery of groove was just as undeniable as his command over his flute. Born in Brooklyn in 1930, Mann got his start playing Catskills resorts as a teenage clarinetist before adopting the flute as his primary instrument and making his name as one of bebop’s preeminent talents. Yet he was also an unusually cosmopolitan player for his era, helping to popularize musical styles from Africa, Cuba, and Brazil in the U.S. with 1962’s Do the Bossa Nova with Herbie Mann and other albums that featured his collaborations with a wide array of peers. Mann’s adventurous ways continued through the ‘70s and ‘80s with forays into rock, soul, funk, and reggae—he even scored a disco hit with 1975’s exuberant “Hi-Jack.” However far Mann and his flute may have traveled from his bebop roots by the time of his death in 2003, the grace and fluidity of his playing—as well as his ever-fascinating rhythms—remained the most indelible elements of his reliably smooth sound.