Phil Woods: Saxophonist who emerged from Charlie Parker's shadow to become a leading light of 1950s and 60s jazz

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The critic Martin Williams noted in 1962 that Woods “now reflects a selective knowledge of the jazz of the Thirties as well as of his own generation.” Woods's personal life, however, did nothing to dispel the typecasting: two years after Parker's death, he married Chan Richardson, who had been Parker's partner. The start of their 17-year relationship occasioned some mischievous comments, for instance from fellow saxophonist Art Pepper, who suggested that Woods married Chan in order to obtain Parker's saxophone. Until the late 1960s, his day-to-day playing became more focused on anonymous studio work – but, as he told me, “It got to be very unstimulating in the end after all the good writers, like Quincy Jones and Oliver Nelson, moved out to the Coast.” In 1968 Woods moved with Chan to Europe, where jazz interest was still strong. BRIAN PRIESTLEY Philip Wells Woods, saxophonist, clarinettist and bandleader: born Springfield, Massachusetts 2 November 1931; married first Chan Richardson Parker ; second Jill Goodwin; died Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania 29 September 2015.