Sara Cassey

Sara Cassey (April 1, 1929 – May 5, 1966) was from Detroit. She came to New York sometime in the mid '50's. She was a pianist, but not a performing jazz pianist. She wrote her music out in full, through composed, in notation, not melody with chord symbols. While in New York, she worked for Riverside Records and therefore got to meet many of the great jazz musicians who recorded for that label. Many of the Detroit musicians, such as the Jones brothers (Hank, Thad and Elvin), pianists Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Roland Hanna, and bassist Ron Carter, knew she was a talented composer. They passed that knowledge on to other great musicians like trumpeter Clark Terry, saxophonist Johnny Griffin, pianists Billy Taylor, Junior Mance and Marian McPartland, as well as drummer Charli Persip, all of whom recorded her music.