US newsObituaryAC Reed
The saxophonist, singer and songwriter AC Reed, who has died aged 77, made a special niche for himself as a bluesman feeling browned off. In his song I Am Fed Up With This Music, on the album Take These Blues And Shove 'Em!, he castigated himself for his poor career choice: "I want a job where I can get paid every week/ I'm playin' this music and I just can't hardly eat/ Money-hungry peoples and musicians stabbin' me in the back/ I was better off down south with a cotton sack."
He wrote several pieces in a similar vein, such as I'm In The Wrong Business - "Should have been a boxer and made that movie Rocky III/ I would have been a star like Sylvester and Mr T" - and These Blues Is Killing Me.
Perhaps not wholly serious in disparaging his life, Reed was much in demand as a tenor saxophonist, working for long spells with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and recording with others who valued the drive and humour in his playing. His own career produced at least song on its way to becoming a genre standard, This Little Voice.
Raised in Illinois, Reed was drawn to the tenor saxophone by hearing the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra on a jukebox. At 16, he took a job in a Chicago steel mill, and used his first wages to buy an instrument from a pawnshop. He studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music for a few years, and learned at first-hand from the tenor saxophonists Gene Ammons and JT Brown.
After working on the road with Willie Mabon, Earl Hooker and Dennis "Long Man" Binder, Reed became house saxman for the Chief and Age labels, and thus may be heard on most of Hooker's early-1960s recordings. In 1967, he joined Guy and Wells, touring in Africa, and supporting the Rolling Stones.
In 1977-78, he did a stint with Son Seals, then took the sax role in Albert Collins' Icebreakers. In a decade with that formidable group, he covered thousands of miles and played on several albums, including the Grammy- nominated Ice Breakin'. He also led his own blues circuit act, the Spark Plugs, which came to Europe in 1985 in a package tour with Larry Davis and Byther Smith. He cut several albums of his own, the second of which, I'm In The Wrong Business! (1987), featured guest appearances by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt.
After leaving Collins, Reed tried to retire, but he found inactivity not to his taste and was soon on the road again. On his last CD, Junk Food (1999), he gave a fraternal nod to his fellow saxophonist Bill Clinton in The President Plays, and presented another dozen pithy compositions, such as the title song and Broke Music, with further bulletins about the misfortunes of the professional musician.
He later reproached himself for having taken so long to step out of an accompanying role, adding "I don't regret playing the blues, because it's educational. Blues tell a story that dates back to the beginning." He is survived by his sister Sarah.
ยท AC Reed (Aaron Corthen), blues musician, born May 6 1926; died February 25 2004
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