Aaron Sachs

[colinmce]

I'm rather hesitant to add an RIP to the title as I've not come across any news articles, but Loren Schoenberg mentioned on Facebook that Aaron Sachs passed away recently. Not hard to believe, and from a reliable source. Sachs was a wonderful player of the clarinet, playing with lots of shading and soul IMO. Little use listing who he played with-- how to narrow it down? A life in music well lived.

[king ubu]

just stumbled over this:

http://www.examiner.com/article/an-interview-with-alan-merrill-a-musical-dynasty

Don't really know much by/about Aaron Sachs, some Red Norvo sides, that fun Modern Jazz Society album with John Lewis (and Tony Scott on other tracks), but mostly I just have him hidden in some larger bands.

[Larry Kart]

He plays very well on Tom Talbert’s excellent “Bix, Duke Fats,” which also includes much superb Joe Wilder:

http://www.amazon.com/Bix-Duke-Fats-Tom-Talbert/dp/B003C8CB1S/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1402405498&sr=1-1&keywords=bix+duke+fats

http://www.amazon.com/Bix-Duke-Fats-Interpretations-Talbert/dp/B00000186H/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1402405529&sr=1-4&keywords=bix+duke+fats

IIRC, Sachs solos on all three off these tracks from “Bix Duke Fats”:

[sgcim]

The guys in the band that I'm playing with tonight should know about Aaron.

All the best, older players from the Bronx used to play in it, but they're gradually passing.

We already lost Eddie Bert, and Aaron's been in bad shape recently.

I was playing regularly with Aaron for the last 20 years, but he retired a year or two ago.

I've written a lot here about his significance in jazz history,

Although he was about 90, he still had the attitude of a young guy.

On the last gig we did together, he said to me, "It looks like they don't care about our music anymore."

Based on what's going on in jazz today, I'd have a hard time disagreeing with him...

[sgcim]

Sadly, one of the guys said that Aaron passed away last week, and they had the funeral two days ago on Sunday.

He said Aaron was 91 when he passed.

Everyone was shocked to hear about it.

He passed away after a fall caused a hip fracture, and he died as a result of an infection from the fracture.

One of the guys was talking about how Aaron was child prodigy on the clarinet, and was expected to be the next Artie Shaw.

He claimed that Aaron had gotten involved with drugs when he married Helen Merrill, and that had derailed his career, but the guy who said that was just speaking

from rumors that were circulating back then.

Aaron himself had told me that he was supposed to be the 'great white hope' in response to Bird, but it didn't work out for some reason.

He once told me about walking down Broadway at that time and running into Bird, who said to him, "I know who you are, but don't go thinking you're something special"!

Another time he told me that John Lewis heard him practicing Bach on the flute before a concert he did with him and was surprised that he was playing classical music, because all the other guys were too busy getting high.

Aaron studied arranging with Hall Overton, and we played his arrangements in the two bands we both played in.

He wrote a great chart featuring himself on Tenor on "Who Can I Turn To", and it was a profound experience to hear him improvise on tenor.

I could best describe his tenor sound as a cross between Getz and Paul Desmond, and his improvisations were melodically very deep, definitely on the level of the

melodic giants, such as Giuffre, Getz, Young, and Desmond.

I've got a disc and a tape he gave me of live concerts he did on clarinet with a quartet featuring Janice Friedman, and a trio featuring Joe Puma.

On clarinet, he sounded more mainstream and technical than his Tenor playing.

Although he was a first call studio player, and could sight read anything, improvisation was where he was truly at.

He turned to me on a gig we were playing with charts, and dramatically said, "You see all those notes on the page- they mean absolutely nothing. Nothing!"

I'm really going to miss him. The younger guys and guys around my age, don't have that special melodic thing that Aaron and the few deep jazz players left had.

Not many left. Thank God I still play with a few. RIP, Aaron.

[soulpope]

Sadly, one of the guys said that Aaron passed away last week, and they had the funeral two days ago on Sunday.

He said Aaron was 91 when he passed.

Everyone was shocked to hear about it.

He passed away after a fall caused a hip fracture, and he died as a result of an infection from the fracture.

One of the guys was talking about how Aaron was child prodigy on the clarinet, and was expected to be the next Artie Shaw.

He claimed that Aaron had gotten involved with drugs when he married Helen Merrill, and that had derailed his career, but the guy who said that was just speaking

from rumors that were circulating back then.

Aaron himself had told me that he was supposed to be the 'great white hope' in response to Bird, but it didn't work out for some reason.

He once told me about walking down Broadway at that time and running into Bird, who said to him, "I know who you are, but don't go thinking you're something special"!

Another time he told me that John Lewis heard him practicing Bach on the flute before a concert he did with him and was surprised that he was playing classical music, because all the other guys were too busy getting high.

Aaron studied arranging with Hall Overton, and we played his arrangements in the two bands we both played in.

He wrote a great chart featuring himself on Tenor on "Who Can I Turn To", and it was a profound experience to hear him improvise on tenor.

I could best describe his tenor sound as a cross between Getz and Paul Desmond, and his improvisations were melodically very deep, definitely on the level of the

melodic giants, such as Giuffre, Getz, Young, and Desmond.

I've got a disc and a tape he gave me of live concerts he did on clarinet with a quartet featuring Janice Friedman, and a trio featuring Joe Puma.

On clarinet, he sounded more mainstream and technical than his Tenor playing.

Although he was a first call studio player, and could sight read anything, improvisation was where he was truly at.

He turned to me on a gig we were playing with charts, and dramatically said, "You see all those notes on the page- they mean absolutely nothing. Nothing!"

I'm really going to miss him. The younger guys and guys around my age, don't have that special melodic thing that Aaron and the few deep jazz players left had.

Not many left. Thank God I still play with a few. RIP, Aaron.

thnx for sharing - posts like this one make subject discussion board special to me.....

[Gheorghe]

I must admit I´m not very well informed about clarinet players, but is it possible, that he´s on one of those Xanadu albums "Bebop Revisited" ?

[soulpope]

I must admit I´m not very well informed about clarinet players, but is it possible, that he´s on one of those Xanadu albums "Bebop Revisited" ?

Aaron Sachs Manor Re-Bops

Aaron Sachs (clarinet) Terry Gibbs (vibraphone) Gene DiNovi (piano) Clyde Lombardi (bass) Tiny Kahn (drums)

NYC, June 8, 1946

1155 Aaron's Axe Manor 1124; Xanadu 124 1156 Patsy's Idea Manor 1147; Xanadu 124 1157 Sam's Beeps And Bops - 1158 Tiny's Con Manor 1124; Xanadu 124

* Xanadu 124 Various Artists - Bebop Revisited, Vol. 2

[Gheorghe]

Yeah, that´s it ! I knew it was some stuff on Xandadu, and I also thought about Terry Gibbs. Well I bought all those Xanadu´s a long time ago, the stuff from Minton with Charlie Christian and so on, some other bop stuff, the rare Dizzy Gillespie with Rubberlegs Williams, some Fats Navarro with Earl Coleman, but didn´t pay much attention to that Manor sides, got to listen to them eventually.....

[garthsj]

I "discovered" Aaron Sachs back in the fifties when I was fascinated by bebop clarinet. Despite his great reputation with other musicians he made very few albums under his own name. There is a set on the Dawn label that has been reissued, another on the Rama label that has been reissued by Fresh Sound, and the previoulsy mentioned Xanadu material. eMusic, the download site that offers an adventure in jazz every day with their eclectic mixture, recently made available this early Bethlehem 10" album:

http://www.emusic.com/album/aaron-sachs/aaron-sachs-quintette/14652673/

Sachs actually did a lot of composing and arranging of Latin jazz, and worked with Latin greats like Machito and Perez Prado.

What a pity he did not leave behind more recodingds .... R.I.P. Aaron Sachs.

[sgcim]

Aaron wrote one Latin big band thing that Louie Bellson used as one of his theme songs, and he didn't get credit for it, so called up LB, and eventually received credit. I forget the tune. Something like "Prime Time"?

The guys in the Terry Gibbs group, AS, TG and Tiny Kahn, used to get together when they were kids in the Bronx, and Tiny came up with a line on "Indiana" that they recorded with the Terry Gibbs Quintet years before "Donna Lee" was written.

I transcribed it, and it's obviously the source of Donna Lee, although there were some differences.

Aaron was a guest on Phil Schaap's show on WKCR discussing the evolution of Donna Lee.

He said Phil grilled him for two hours about it.

It is fascinating how jazz used to be more of an oral tradition back then, and lines would get passed back and forth at jam sessions, and eventually evolve into a recorded tune. A lot of bop and swing heads were "communally" composed.

[SusanW]

Supa Groover-

The Tito Rodriguez title is "El Mondo De Las Locas" (composed by Aaron Sachs) and this is one of the many versions on youtube - see below link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rzjQaVEDBQ

I'm glad Bellson gave Sachs credit for authorship of his variation on the "El Mondo De Las Locas" theme, which Bellson in fact titled "Blast Off."

All best wishes,

Susan W.

[sgcim]

Thanks, Susan!

Now I remember that the Spanish title was something like "Day of the Crazies".

He studied arr. with Hall Overton, and we played many of Aaron's arrangements in two of the bands I played in with him.