Bernard Jean ‘Barney’ Wilen; French Jazz Saxophonist

Bernard Jean “Barney” Wilen, 59, French pioneer of 1960s “free jazz” and a sizzling saxophonist who once toured with Miles Davis. A self-taught musician who recorded his first album when he was 19, Wilen sat in on a legendary session with Davis in 1957 for “Ascenseur Pour l’Echafaud” (“Elevator for the Scaffold”), a classic film by the late director Louis Malle. It was a pivotal job for Wilen, who quickly became a symbol of jazz in France with his youthful good looks and trademark horn-rimmed glasses. He toured Europe with Davis in 1959 and later played in Paris with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson, John Lewis and Bud Powell. Wilen collaborated with Thelonious Monk on the musical score for the 1960 Roger Vadim film “Dangerous Liaisons” and was one of the first Europeans invited to the Newport Jazz Festival. On May 25 in Paris of cancer.