Harold Ashby goes away

[brownie]

Tenor saxophonist Harold Ashby passed away last Friday.

This is his obituary in today's New York Times.

Harold Ashby, 78, Saxophonist With Ellington Band

By PETER KEEPNEWS

Harold Ashby, a saxophonist whose long association with Duke Ellington began

before he joined Ellington's orchestra and continued after Ellington's death, died

on Friday at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. He was 78.

No cause of death was announced, but he entered the hospital at the end of

May after a heart attack, said Russ Dantzler, a friend.

Mr. Ashby joined the Ellington band in 1968, eight years after he first worked

with Ellington as a freelancer. He remained the band's featured tenor saxophonist

until 1975, a year after Ellington died and his son, Mercer, took over.

With his big, gruff sound and extroverted, heart-on-sleeve approach,

Mr. Ashby was unmistakably in the tradition of Ellington's first great tenor saxophone

soloist, Ben Webster. Webster was in fact more than just an influence; he was

Mr. Ashby's mentor.

The older saxophonist took Mr. Ashby under his wing in Kansas City, Mo., in the

late 1940's, and introduced him to Ellington in New York City a decade later. "Ben

looked out for me," he told The Amsterdam News in 2000.

Born in Kansas City on March 27, 1925, Harold Ashby began his career there in the

late 1940's. He then moved to Chicago, where he became a staple of the thriving

local blues scene in the 1950's, working with Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Jimmy

Witherspoon and many others.

In 1957 he moved to New York, where he freelanced with various bandleaders,

including Count Basie and Mercer Ellington.

He first worked with Duke Ellington in the summer of 1960, substituting for

two nights for Paul Gonsalves.

In an interview in 2002 for The Kansas City Star, Mr. Ashby recalled that his

association with Ellington began early on a Monday morning, when his phone rang

shortly after he had returned home from a job. At first he thought the call was a prank

and hung up, but Ellington called back to offer work, starting that morning.

"That first job, there were no rehearsals," Mr. Ashby continued. "The singer sang

something, then somebody said, `Play some.' So I went on and played a solo."

Mr. Ashby worked intermittently with Ellington over the next several years and

finally became a full-time member of the ensemble in 1968, replacing the saxophonist

and clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton.

After leaving the Ellington orchestra in 1975, he returned to freelancing and frequently performed in New York and Europe with his own quartet. From 1988 to 1999, he

recorded several albums of relaxed small-group swing as a leader for various labels.

Mr. Ashby maintained his Ellington connection to the end: he toured Europe with an

Ellington alumni band in 1978, and his albums and nightclub sets always included at

least one song written by or associated with Ellington.

He left no immediate survivors.

[king ubu]

Another sad news - what a wonderful sound he had

ubu

[Dan Gould]

A very nice player, even if his Ben Webster influence was so pronounced. I pulled out his Mapleshade release,Just for You and the one CD I recommend most highly, On The Sunny Side of the Street on Timeless to listen and remember. RIP.

***************

His Ellington association leads me to wonder-who else is left who played with Duke? I'm not as familiar with the later-era Ellington bands but I imagine there were younger guys in those bands who are still around. But is Harold the last from his generation?

[John Tapscott]

A very nice player, even if his Ben Webster influence was so pronounced.  I pulled out his Mapleshade release,Just for You and the one CD I recommend most highly, On The Sunny Side of the Street on Timeless to listen and remember.  RIP.

***************

His Ellington association leads me to wonder-who else is left who played with Duke?  I'm not as familiar with the later-era Ellington bands but I imagine there were younger guys in those bands who are still around.  But is Harold the last from his generation?

I don't think there's all that many - Duke didn't hire guys right out of college like the other name bands. I can't think of many that are left - Clark Terry, trombonist Art Baron, trumpeter Barrie Lee Hall, tenor Ricky Ford (who played in the short-lived Ellington band Mercer led after Duke died;

Mercer just seemed to let the thing fade away, for some reason.) There must be others that I just can't recall at the moment.

BTW, I was surprised that Keepnews referred to Ashby as THE featured tenor player during his tenure with the band. Surely, Paul Gonsalves, despite his inconsistencies, would have qualified for that title right to the end. IMHO, Gonsalves is one of the most underrated tenor players of all time.

[JSngry]

Julian Priester, Fred Stone, Chuck Connors, Jeff Castleman, Harold "Money" Johnson, Aaron Bell, Eddie Preston, & Jimmy Woode are all still alive to my knowledge, as of course is Louis Bellson.

So are Gerald Wilson & Elvin Jones, if you want to get hardcore...

[patricia]

He was a class act.

RIP Harold Ashby.

Edited June 20, 2003 by patricia

[shrugs]

Anyone else have Presenting Harold Ashby on Progressive?

Grab it if you see it! It smokes throughout!