Najee

Najee
Photo by William Henderson
Background information
Birth name	Jerome Najee Rasheed
Born	New York City
Genres	Smooth jazz, R&B
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instruments	Vocals, saxophone, flute
Labels	EMI, Verve Forecast, Heads Up, Telarc, E1, Shanachie

Jerome Najee Rasheed (born in New York City, New York on November 4, 1957), known professionally as Najee, is an American jazz and smooth jazz saxophonist and flautist.

Najee was born in the Greenwich Village section of New York City and lived his teenage years in Jamaica Queens, New York. His father died at a young age, and Najee and siblings were raised by his mother Mary Richards. His mother was an important figure and supporter throughout his life and musical career.

Najee's musical pursuits began in grade school at age eight, where he began playing the clarinet, but he had a deep desire to play saxophone. He was influenced at this age by listening to his mother's recordings of Miles Davis and other legendary American jazz artists. A pivotal moment in his life began when he made the decision to become a professional jazz musician. In high school, Najee began to study jazz as a student at the Jazzmobile program (co-founded by Dr. Billy Taylor) where he honed his skills on tenor saxophone and flute under the direction of Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster and Ernie Wilkins. At age 16, Najee studied flute at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, where he took lessons with Harold Jones, flautist from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Inspired by saxophonists John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Yusef Lateef, Grover Washington Jr. and Hubert Laws and James Galway on flute, Najee began his career as a teenager performing in local bands in the New York City area. After high school, Najee's first world tour was with a band from New York City called “Area Code”. The band spent two years performing on military bases in Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Central America, Caribbean, and the United States on behalf of the USO . Upon his return from the USO World Tour, Najee went on the road with Ben E. King. After touring with Ben for the summer, Najee and his brother Fareed attended Bronx Community College for two semesters. Both were music majors under the tutelage of Valerie Capers. The following year both brothers auditioned and were admitted to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Najee was a performance and composition major. He also studied with legendary Joe Allard (1st clarinetist for Toscanini). At the Conservatory Najee studied and performed with George Russell and Jaki Byard big bands.