Harold Vick
Harold Vick (born April 3, 1936 in Rocky Mount , North Carolina , † November 13, 1987 in New York City ) was an American musician ( tenor saxophone , soprano saxophone , flute ) of hardbop and soul jazz .
Harold Vick was born in the small town of Rocky Mount, from which the pianist Thelonious Monk also comes. Vick began working as a musician when he was 13 when his uncle Prince Robinson (a tenor saxophonist who had played with Louis Armstrong , Duke Ellington, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers ) gave him a clarinet. At 16 he switched to the tenor saxophone and played in R&B bands. In the 1950s he moved to Washington, DC to study psychology at Howard University . He also performed with local R&B bands.
In 1960 Harold Vick moved to New York with Joe Bonner to work as a professional musician. From 1961 he was a member of Jack McDuff's band with Joe Dukes and worked on McDuff's prestige albums, such as Brother Jack Meets the Boss (1962) and Crash (1963) with; In 1963 he worked with John Patton ( Along Came John ). From the mid-1960s he worked with Grant Green , on whose Verve album His Majesty, King Funk he participated, as well as with Richard "Groove" Holmes ( Blues Groove ) and Jimmy McGriff , and he also led his own formations. In 1963 he recorded his first album under his own name for Blue Note Records : Steppin 'Out! . During this time he also worked on recordings for R&B and jazz vocalists such as Ray Charles , Aretha Franklin , Ashford & Simpson, Angela Bofill , Abbey Lincoln , Sarah Vaughan , Lena Horne and Shirley Scott .
In June 1966 his album The Caribbean Suite was created , on which Blue Mitchell , Bobby Hutcherson , Everett Barksdale , Albert Dailey , Walter Booker and Mickey Roker participated; in October, the album Straight Up followed on RCA . Herbie Hancock and Joe Farrell then worked on his RCA album Watch What Happens . Between 1966 and 1974 he recorded other albums for RCA, Muse and Strata-East . He played in the Houston Person band around 1970 before joining Jack DeJohnette's Compost; He was involved in both recordings of the Fusion band. In the 1980s he played in the Jimmy McGriff Orchestra and accompanied Abbey Lincoln , a few days before his death, in November 1987 in her tribute to Billie Holiday ( Abbey sings Billie ).
By then, Vick had also worked with Richard Williams , Les McCann , Nat Adderley , Dizzy Gillespie , Mercer Ellington , Billy Taylor , Shirley Scott , Donald Byrd , Jimmy Smith, and Horace Silver .
Vick was in the film School Days by Spike Lee made an appearance; he also starred on the soundtrack of the film She's Gotta Have It .
Chris Kelsey calls Harold Vick one of the forgotten legends of the saxophone in his biography on Allmusic ; he puts Vick with his hard, aggressive, funky tone on par with Booker Ervin , David Fathead Newman , Wilton Felder and James Clay . Although he had only a few recording sessions under his own name, he was highly regarded by his colleagues.
Discographic notes
- Steppin` Out (Blue Note, 1963)
- The Caribbean Suite (RCA, 1966)
- Commitment (Muse, 1966)
- Straight Up (RCA, 1966)
- Don't Look Back ( Strata-East , 1974)
- After the Dance (Wolf, 1977)
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vick, Harold |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American musician (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute) of hardbop and soul jazz |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 3, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | North Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1987 |
| Place of death | New York City |