James Moody (March 26, 1925[1] – December 9, 2010)[2] was an American jazz saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles.

[5][better source needed] Growing up in Newark, New Jersey,[6] he was attracted to the saxophone after hearing Lester Young, "Buddy" George Holmes Tate, Don Byas, and various saxophonists who played with Count Basie.

[7] Moody joined the US Army Air Corps in 1943 and played in the "negro band" at the segregated Greensboro Training Center.

And I made some good friends with some of the guys... [7]Following his discharge from the military in 1946, he played bebop with Dizzy Gillespie[2] for two years.

That same year, he relocated to Europe, where he stayed for three years, saying he had been "scarred by racism" in the U.S.[9] His European work, including the first recording of "Moody's Mood for Love", which became a hit in 1952,[10] saw him add the alto saxophone to his repertoire and helped to establish him as recording artist in his own right, and formed part of the growth of European jazz.

It was not until he returned to the U.S. and toured with The Brook Benton Revue (with The James Moody Orchestra) that he became acquainted with music theory, crediting Tom McIntosh with explaining to him chord changes.

[12] In 1997, Moody appeared as William Glover, the law firm's porter, in Clint Eastwood's movie adaptation of John Berendt's novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

And along with Faddis, toured in 1986 with the Philip Morris Superband hosting artists like Hammond organist Jimmy Smith, Kenny Burrell, Grady Tate and Barbara Morrison.

Included in this line-up were Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Washington, Slide Hampton and Monty Alexander on a four-country, 14-city one-month tour of 18 concerts, notably in Australia, Canada, Japan and the Philippines, starting on September 3, 1986, with its first concert in Perth, Australia.

For a time, Moody held belief in the ancient astronaut theory detailed in Zecharia Sitchin's book The 12th Planet, sometimes advocating it to listeners at live events.