Art Porter, Jr.
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Arthur L. 'Art' Porter, Jr., (3 August 1961 - 23 November 1996), was an American jazz saxophonist. He was the son of jazz musician Art Porter, Sr..
Art Porter, Jr. was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1961. He was the son of legendary Art Porter, Sr.. At the age of 9 Porter joined his father's band as a drummer and played with them into his teenage years. During this time he was arrested and charged with working under-age in a nightclub serving alcoholic beverages. Then Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton, who was also a saxophonist, intervened to get the charges dropped and pushed for the law to be changed to allow under-age musicians to appear in adult facilities as long as their legal guardian accompanied them. This law became known as "The Art Porter Bill".
Porter attended Berklee College of Music and Northeastern Illinois University where he studied music. Porter studied piano under Ellis Marsalis.
In the mid 1980s he moved to Chicago, Illinois and studied tenor saxaphone with Von Freeman and performed with Pharoah Sanders and Jack McDuff. During the 1990s he developed an interest in R&B and hip-hop and merged elements of these into his performances. Porter signed with Verve Records/Polygram Records and produced several albums.
In 1996 he traveled to Thailand to appear at the Thailand International Jazz Festival. Prior to the festival on 23 November he and several others went boating on the Kratha Taek reservoir in Sai Yok, Thailand and Porter and several others drowned after their boat overturned. Porter left behind a wife and two elementary age sons.
Porter has been inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame. Porter received the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
Adapted from the article Art Porter, Jr. (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml?title=Art_Porter%2C_Jr.), from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.