A powerful baritonist in the tradition of
Pepper Adams,
Ronnie Cuber has been making excellent records for over 20 years. He was in
Marshall Brown's Newport Youth Band at the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival and was featured with the groups of
Slide Hampton (1962),
Maynard Ferguson (1963-1965), and
George Benson (1966-1967). After stints with
Lionel Hampton (1968),
Woody Herman's Orchestra (1969), and as a freelancer, he recorded a series of fine albums (both as a leader and as a sideman) for Xanadu and performed with
Lee Konitz's nonet (1977-1979). In the mid-'80s,
Cuber recorded for Projazz (in both straight-ahead and R&B-ish settings), in the early '90s he headed dates for Fresh Sound and SteepleChase and
Cuber performed regularly with
the Mingus Big Band.
–
Scott Yanow, Rovi