Vic Ash RIP

[RayB]

I have just heard that Vic Ash passed on 24th October.

Vic was a terrific reeds player and one of the leading lights of the British modern scene in the 1950s, he was also the guy who taught our own Simon Spillett who co authored Vic's autobiography 'I blew it my way'. I met him once and he was a lovely man.

Maybe Simon can give us some detail and maybe some stories.

[BillF]

Very sorry to hear of that. Saw Vic in my youth at Scott's old place in his quintet with Harry Klein and much more recently with Simon at Wigan. His autobiography is a great read:

[SimonSpill]

He was a lovely man, a wonderful musician and a great friend. I will really miss him.

There are so many stories - I'm so glad Vic took the time out get them together in his autobiography. On a more personal note, he made a huge difference to my life, taking me on as a (VERY) raw student, aged 18, in 1993. We played together many, many times and I always marvelled at his poise, relaxation and musical invention.

With cruel irony, at the time of Vic's death I was working on the sleeve notes to an album of rediscovered recordings by him from the late 1950s/early '60s, and which show him at the top of his game.

I'm very sad to see that none of the national papers have (as yet) covered his passing. As one of the key founders of British modern jazz (not to mention his illustrious career as a session/touring musician) he surely deserves a full-length obituary.

[RogerF]

A nice obituary for Vic by Peter Vacher appears in the Guardian here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/31/vic-ash

I too met Vic at one of Simon's gigs and was impressed by his charm and modesty and obviously his prodigious talent. R.I.P. Vic.