Artist 🎷Harold Vick

Artist 🎷Harold Vick

(April 3, 1936 – November 13, 1987)

Saxophonist 🎷 Flautist
American Hard Bop and Soul Jazz

Harold Vick was born on April 3, 1936 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. At the age of 13 he was given a clarinet by his uncle, Prince Robinson, a clarinet and tenor saxophone player who had been a member of McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Three years later he took up the tenor saxophone, and soon began playing in R&B bands. He continued to perform, still largely with R&B bands, while studying psychology at Howard University.

Steppin' Out!, Vick's first album as leader, was recorded for Blue Note in 1963. 
After a 1965 performance at Carnegie Hall with Donald Byrd, Vick secured a contract for further albums as leader, and from 1966 to 1974 he had further recording sessions for the RCA, Muse, and Strata-East labels.

♪♪♫  🎶  Steppin' Out 🎶 ♪♪♫

Work as sideman

Vick worked as a sideman with Jack McDuff from 1960 to 1964, and also with other organists such as Jimmy McGriff, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. For the rest of the 1960s he played on and off with Walter Bishop, Jr., and also worked with Philly Joe Jones, Howard McGhee, Donald Byrd and Ray Charles, and appeared with Dizzy Gillespie at the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival.

Our Miss Brooks

Tenor Saxophone: Harold Vick
Trumpet: Blue Mitchell
Guitar: Grant Green
Drums: Ben Dixon
Producer: Alfred Lion
Studio Personnel, Recording Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Organ: Big John Patton
Composer: Harold Vick

 

 

Vick then worked for around 5 years with soul artists, from 1969 to 1970 with King Curtis, and from 1970 to 1974 with Aretha Franklin. He played in Jack DeJohnette's jazz-rock band Compost from 1971 to 1973, recording with them in 1972.

Tiempo Medio Lento

From the 1967 album The Caribbean Suite.

Vick and his orchestra play Kenny Graham's music (plus one orginal and one Bird composition)

Along for the ride are: Blue Mitchell, trumpet, Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, Al Dailey, piano, Everett Barksdale, guitar, Walter Booker, bass, Mickey Rocker, drums and Motengo Joe and Manuel Ramos on latin percussion. 

Senor Zamora

After a heart attack in the mid 1970s, Vick largely returned to soul jazz, working with Shirley Scott from 1974 to 1976 and with Jimmy McGriff from 1980 to 1981. 
At the same time he continued to work as a freelance jazz musician and session musician. 
As late as 1987 he performed on two Billie Holiday tribute albums by Abbey Lincoln.

He also played with Nat Adderley, Mercer Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Taylor, Horace Silver, and Gene Ammons.

Watch What Happens
 (From "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg")

Composer, Lyricist: Michel Legrand

Composer, Lyricist: Norman Gimbel

Released on: 1963-01-01

Producer: Alfred Lion

Studio Personnel, Recording Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder

Studio Personnel, Mastering Engineer: Ron McMaster

Producer: Michael Cuscuna

Tenor Saxophone: Harold Vick

Trumpet: Blue Mitchell

Organ: John Patton

Guitar: Grant Green

Drums: Ben Dixon

Composer: Harold Vick 

Film and Theatre

During the 1960s Vick worked as a member of the house band at the Apollo Theater, and in 1969 he toured Europe as a musician with the Negro Ensemble Company. He also played for a number of stage productions during the 1980s.

He appeared in the films Stardust Memories (1981) and The Cotton Club (1984), in which he played a musician. He was also cast for the Spike Lee film School Daze (1988), and undertook work for the soundtracks for a number of other films.

Death

Vick died at his Manhattan home of a heart attack on November 13, 1987. He was memorialised by the tune "Did You See Harold Vick?", which Sonny Rollins wrote and featured on his album This Is What I Do (2000).

Artist Biography
by Chris Kelsey

One of jazz's great unsung saxophonists, Harold Vick can be placed in a category with the likes of Booker Ervin, David "Fathead" Newman, Wilton Felder, and James Clay - 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, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, and Big John Patton. Vick also performed and recorded with many noted R&B and jazz vocalists, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ashford & Simpson, Angela Bofill, Abbey Lincoln, and Lena Horne.

Vick was born in the same small North Carolina town - Rocky Mount - as pianist Thelonious Monk (his elder by 20 years). Vick started playing music at the age of 13 when his uncle Prince Robinson (a highly regarded tenor saxophonist who played with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, 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 McGriff began attracting attention. By the mid-'60s, Vick was leading his own groups, featuring such players as trumpeter Blue Mitchell and guitarist Grant Green. 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 Jack DeJohnette'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 Scott and McGriff, singers Franklin and Charles, Dizzy Gillepie'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 Billie Holiday tributes with singer Abbey Lincoln for the enja label. In 1998 Sonny Rollins paid tribute to Vick by composing and recording a tune titled "Did You See Harold Vick?"

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/harold-vick-mn0000952516/biography

Guava Jelly

Discography

As leader

• 1963: Steppin' Out! (Blue Note)

• 1966: The Caribbean Suite (RCA Victor)

• 1966: Straight Up (RCA Victor)

• 1967: Commitment (Muse), released 1974

• 1967: Watch What Happens (RCA Victor)

• 1973: The Power of Feeling (Encounter Records, released under the name "Sir Edward")

• 1974: Don't Look Back (Strata-East)

• 1977: After the Dance (Wolf)

If Ever I Would Leave You

(From  "Camelot")

Composer, Lyricist: Alan Lerner 

Composer, Lyricist: Frederick Loewe

If I Should Lose You

          

We'll Be Together Again

Birth name    Harold Edward Vick
Born    April 3, 1936  - Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States
Died    November 13, 1987 (aged 51)  New York, New York, United States
Genres    Hard bop, Soul jazz
Instruments    Tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute
Years active    1950s–1987
Labels    Blue Note Records, RCA Victor
Associated acts    Grant Green, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott

Harold Vick - Topic (YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClMvQoClWTt1VA5aHj_Oy7Q

 

SOURCE:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Vick

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