Vic Ash born 9 March 1930

Victor "Vic" Ash (9 March 1930 – 24 October 2014) was an English jazz saxophonist and clarinettist. He released many albums for Pye, Nixa and MGM, mostly in the mainstream jazz tradition. 

Vic was born in the East End of London, around the corner from Brick Lane, part of a close-knit Jewish community that spawned a number of significant jazz modernists including Ronnie Scott and Harry Klein. His parents, Sarah and Isaac, were of Polish and Lithuanian stock; both were deaf and made their living in the local rag trade. 

Although they were far from well-off, Vic looked back on his childhood in Whitechapel as happy and fulfilled, even more so when he joined a nearby youth club and came upon the clarinet. Hearing Benny Goodman’s records proved inspirational., He started clarinet tuition in 1945 while working as a salesman and in 1948 had his first professional booking with Stan Tracey on a tour of British military bases in Germany. 

He was befriended by Ronnie Scott and got to sit in at Club Eleven although many, including Tony Crombie, were hostile to somebody playing the clarinet in that hallowed bebop venue. He was the first man in Britain to play the clarinet in a modern jazz context. In 1950 he became a full time professional joining the Kenny Baker Sextet in a band that already include Tubby Hayes. In 1953 he worked with Vic Lewis, the first of a number of spells over the next few years with Lewis. 

From the mid 1950s he formed his own groups - Vic Ash and his Music, the Vic Ash Quartet, (who in 1954 recorded with US singer Maxine Sullivan in London) and in 1958 formed a sextet including Johnny Scott, Ian Hamer and Alan Branscombe. The group went to the USA on MU/AF exchange featuring Bert Courtley on trumpet. By now Ash was playing the tenor saxophone as well as clarinet. During this period he recorded with his own groups and as a sideman with others often including baritone sax player Harry Klein. Concurrently he had a radio program called Sunday Break, which discussed jazz and religion. Modern jazz was all the rage in London in the 1950s and he remembered making five separate “guest appearances” in a single evening and being paid five pounds for each, then a small fortune for a night’s work. 

                             

He was an established and popular performer on the club circuit playing with Tubby Hayes and Victor Feldman among others. He accompanied Hoagy Carmichael and Cab Calloway on their English tours and did very well for many years in the infamous Melody Maker reader polls. He said he was seeking to emulate the cool sound of the US clarinettist Buddy DeFranco, then the first prominent player to move away from Goodman’s dominant style. Ash toured the U.S. in 1957 and returned to play with Lewis in 1959. His ensemble was the only one representing British jazz at the Newport Jazz Festival that year. 

Harry Klein, Tony Man & Vic Ash 1960

In early 1960 Ash formed a quintet with Harry Klein named the Jazz Five. This proved to be very successful and it survived until 1962, touring the UK with a number of top jazz names including Miles Davis, Carmen McRae and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The group worked the clubs and had an album released in America as well as the UK. From 1962 to 1965 Vic Ash was with the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra before working in Bermuda from 1966 to 1969. 

Vic with Johnny Dankworth

When the modern jazz boom faded he worked in musical theatre as well as becoming a first-call reeds specialist for touring stars. A particular highlight from this period was a panic call to join the Ray Charles orchestra in Paris, following the arrest of one of the singer’s saxophonists. Vic was sent over to cover for the missing man and spent two weeks on the road with the band, the first white man to play in the Charles orchestra. 

He worked with Frank Sinatra for over 20 years as part of his British tour and for every 18 months from 1970 to 1992 and toured Europe, the middle East and England. During the 1970s he worked with many top names including Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Jack Jones, Tony Bennett, Liza Minelli and Ella Fitzgerald on their UK tours. He worked on TV in the Michael Parkinson Show plus studio, concert, TV, film and club work. From 1970 he also fitted in seven years at the Talk of the Town, a central London night club. 

In 2006, he published his autobiography, I Blew It My Way, written with the help of his wife, Helen, and a fellow saxophonist, Simon Spillett. Not unreasonably, he subtitled it Bebop, Big Bands and Sinatra. His final long-term association was with the BBC Big Band, playing concerts and broadcasts. Thereafter, Vic settled into active semi-retirement. He died on 24 October 2014. 

(Edited from Henry bebop, Peter Vacher obit @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)