David S. Ware

David S. Ware (1949-2012) was an American tenor saxophonist, composer and bandleader from New Jersey. He came up in the New York loft scene of the 1970s, played with Cecil Taylor and Andrew Cyrille, and led a long-running quartet with pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker. The critic Gary Giddins called it the best small band in jazz in 2001. Ware was born in Plainfield and studied briefly at Berklee before moving to New York in 1973, where he drove a cab for 14 years. His debut as leader, Birth of a Being, was recorded with Cooper-Moore and Marc Edwards and issued by HatHut.