Articles by Melodi Graf McCraine

Bob Graf: A St. Louis Tenor Voice the World Almost Missed

by Melodi Graf McCraine
April 14, 2026

There is a particular kind of musician who never quite makes it into the history books despite spending a career in the company of greatness. Bob Graf was that kind of musician--a jny: St. Louis tenor saxophonist who played alongside Count Basie, Woody Herman, Chet Baker, Grant Green, and Gerry Mulligan, recorded albums that still sell today, and spent five decades keeping jazz alive in the city that shaped him. He died in 1981 at 54. His story deserves to ...