Saxophonist Hal Stein, long treasured for his charm, generous humor and improvisational finesse, passed away on Sunday, April 27, after a valiant battle with lung cancer. Mr. Stein was 79.

At the age of 77, Stein released "Spirit!," his first album as a leader in five decades. Jazz writer Andy Gilbert, profiling Mr. Stein on the JazzWest website in 2007, described the saxophonist's latest recording as "brawny and bruising on uptempo pieces, sensual and insinuating on ballads, Stein's imposing sound is still huge and pliant... there's no mistaking his roots in the early days of bebop."

Something of a prodigy, the saxophonist came of age during the tail end of the big band era, playing with a string of top orchestras, including bands led by Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Buddy Morrow, Benny Carter and Claude Thornhill. With many top musicians serving in the military, there were plenty of opportunities for young players, especially if they could read music. And Stein was more daring than most teenagers, making his way from Weehawken, New Jersey to Manhattan's fabled 52nd Street, where he sat in with pianist Errol Garner and tenor saxophone giant Don Byas.

"It was open to young musicians but maybe people were intimidated, so every week I was just about the only one to sit in," Stein recalled in his conversation with Gilbert. "Don Byas was very friendly, and he gave me tips. I didn't know much at all. But word about me started to spread and before long I was featured at my own concert at Town Hall with Teddy Wilson playing piano for me. That was 1945, and I was billed as the 16-year-old wonder, but actually I was 17."

Known by his friends as "Bull Moose" for his formidable sound, Stein went on to study at Julliard, where he cemented his friendship with Phil Woods, another budding altoist drawn to 52nd Street. While Woods is the one who went on to worldwide fame, he says that back then it was Stein who was the leader.

Drafted into the Army in the early 1950s, Stein served in Japan, where he played every night with an unknown Japanese pianist named Toshiko Akiyoshi in the house band of a merchant seamen's club called The Porthole. When he got out of the service he attended the Manhattan School of Music on the GI Bill, and by the mid-50s he was working with vibraphonist Teddy Charles and legendary bassist/composer Charles Mingus, an experience that was as challenging personally as it was musically.

Stein did make a number of highly respected recordings, including a session with tenor saxophonist Al Cohn and "Four Altos" on Prestige, featuring Woods, Gene Quill and Sahib Shihab, a 1957 album that's still in print. When the jazz scene started slowing down, Stein became an educator, taking a position in Harlem. He first moved to the Bay Area in 1971, and quickly found a job teaching in the Berkeley public school system.

In the early 1970's, Stein was one of the first musicians presented by Loft Jazz, the precursor of Jazz In Flight. He also convinced Yoshi of Yoshi's Nitespot to give him a gig at the famous Japanese restaurant, thus beginning Yoshi's tenure as the premier East Bay jazz club.

His teaching career jumped to the next level in the mid-80s, after he won a grant to teach jazz in three Danville-area high schools. The visibility helped him land a job at Stanford University.

Plans for a memorial and musical celebration of Hal's life are in the works, according to fellow musician and recent collaborator Lee Bloom. For more information, or to discover more about Hal's musical life and times, please visit his official website at http://www.halsteinjazz.com.