Erica Lindsay


Erica Lindsay is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.

Music career

Lindsay's parents, both teachers, lived in Europe in the 1960s. She began her studies in composition with Mal Waldron in Munich when she was fifteen years old. She played clarinet, then alto and tenor saxophone. In 1973, she studied for a year at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and then went back to Europe, where she began her music career. She formed and a local quartet and went on tour. Since 1980 she has lived in New York.
As a saxophonist, she worked with Melba Liston, Clifford Jordan, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, George Gruntz, and Pheeroan akLaff. Lindsay composed for theater, television, and dance productions and worked with poets and performance artists such as Carl Hancock Rux, Janice King, Janine Vega, Mikhail Horowitz and Nancy Ostrovsky. She leads her own quartet and is the co-leader of a quartet with Sumi Tonooka.
In 1989, her debut album Dreamer was recorded for Candid Records, with contributions from Robin Eubanks, Howard Johnson, Francesca Tanksley, and Anthony Cox.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Lindsay played with Oliver Lake, Baikida Carroll,Howard [Johnson, Jeff Siegel, Thurman Barker and the band Trace Elements. Their album Yes – Live at the Rosendale Cafe appeared in 2008.
Lindsay is visiting Assistant Professor at Bard College.