Arthur Barron

A fine saxophonist with a sound of his own, Arthur Barron's main recordings thus far have been a date co-led by pianist Hilton Ruiz (and also featuring flugelhornist Pete Minger) and his own Soul Messenger, both released as CDs by Dragon Rose in 1994. Barron originally played drums and trumpet before switching to alto. He attended the Berklee School of Music, influenced by both bebop and R&B, and started doubling on flute. In the 1970s, he worked as a concert tour manager for the CTI label, spent time managing Keystone Korner in San Francisco, gigged briefly with the Eddie Henderson-Julian Priester band, and was inspired on tenor by Joe Henderson (who gave him lessons) and Pharoah Sanders. After a period spent in Spain in the late '70s, Barron moved to New York, where he led a funk-oriented group and also a jazz quartet. He gigged in New York through much of the 1980s (including leading a funk band called the Flying Tigers), and then moved to Florida, where he opened the club Tropics International and led the octet Lost in the Shuffle. 1989-91 was spent in Hong Kong and gigging in the East before returning to Miami in 1991 in order to run Rose's Bar & Music and start the Dragon Rose label.
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