Harold Vick

One of jazz's great unsung saxophonists, Harold Vick can be placed in a category with the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:3ZppcUE7tHnE6SzUR4ipSy">Booker Ervin</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5OPNYwuIto3q4ac46rIIZC">David "Fathead" Newman</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:63cn8iGgLoxEHkp3mMPNXj">Wilton Felder</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4yN4CL5hDeBFdEFFCvfGxw">James Clay</a> -- hard-toned, aggressive, funky tenorists who placed an emphasis on the blues even as they embodied state-of-the-art bop-derived modernism. Although he led relatively few recording dates, Vick was held in high regard by other leaders, especially such '60s-era soul-jazz organists as Brother Jack McDuff, <a href="spotify:artist:1A0QR12gcj2L5hYh1WWDeh">Jimmy McGriff</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1TnGxyraO6Uyfyt2PuVFvI">Shirley Scott</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1N0ymPm6hUQbmzXDuERfeT">Big John Patton</a>. Vick also performed and recorded with many noted R&B and jazz vocalists, including <a href="spotify:artist:1eYhYunlNJlDoQhtYBvPsi">Ray Charles</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7nwUJBm0HE4ZxD3f5cy5ok">Aretha Franklin</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2EURsXo9qlt1aMWlviGCRi">Ashford & Simpson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:07CTbCcLVHYwZqp1YMdf4t">Angela Bofill</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0A9p7WNA1VwxVyrjx92Z9F">Abbey Lincoln</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2I6nP70ltmOHi6xjJUXHMe">Lena Horne</a>.

Vick was born in the same small North Carolina town -- Rocky Mount -- as pianist <a href="spotify:artist:4PDpGtF16XpqvXxsrFwQnN">Thelonious Monk</a> (his elder by 20 years). Vick started playing music at the age of 13 when his uncle <a href="spotify:artist:7CBNBm03xjeCZunbTuIOfS">Prince Robinson</a> (a highly regarded tenor saxophonist who played with <a href="spotify:artist:19eLuQmk9aCobbVDHc6eek">Louis Armstrong</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke Ellington</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5I3S4y3G5KQ6M5DUqxM3wD">McKinney's Cotton Pickers</a>, and others during the '20s and '30s) gave him a clarinet. At 16 Vick took up the tenor and soon after began playing in R&B bands. In the '50s Vick moved to Washington, D.C., and studied psychology at Howard University. He continued to play, mostly with R&B bands.

His work with such organists as McDuff and <a href="spotify:artist:1A0QR12gcj2L5hYh1WWDeh">McGriff</a> began attracting attention. By the mid-'60s, Vick was leading his own groups, featuring such players as trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:420BtT2Zyze7Eb9zqHcliW">Blue Mitchell</a> and guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:6dAtGAnHCQ1ujMUZ9Ep82k">Grant Green</a>. In 1963, he recorded his first album as a leader, Steppin' Out!, for the Blue Note label. Between 1966 and 1974 he led dates for the RCA, Muse, and Strata East labels. In 1972 he recorded with <a href="spotify:artist:7rDjbKTLlpNYJRWMm7QVxU">Jack DeJohnette</a>'s band Compost, one of the drummer's first efforts at leading a band.

By the mid-'70s Vick had essentially stopped recording as a leader. His career as a sideman flourished, however. He continued working with organists <a href="spotify:artist:1TnGxyraO6Uyfyt2PuVFvI">Scott</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1A0QR12gcj2L5hYh1WWDeh">McGriff</a>, singers Franklin and <a href="spotify:artist:1eYhYunlNJlDoQhtYBvPsi">Charles</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5RzjqfPS0Bu4bUMkyNNDpn">Dizzy Gillepie</a>'s big band, and with R&B acts both in the studio and on the road. Shortly before his death in 1987, Vick recorded a pair of <a href="spotify:artist:1YzCsTRb22dQkh9lghPIrp">Billie Holiday</a> tributes with singer <a href="spotify:artist:0A9p7WNA1VwxVyrjx92Z9F">Abbey Lincoln</a> for the enja label. In 1998 <a href="spotify:artist:1VEzN9lxvG6KPR3QQGsebR">Sonny Rollins</a> paid tribute to Vick by composing and recording a tune titled "Did You See Harold Vick?" ~ Chris Kelsey