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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSUPERSAXA band formed by Med Flory and Buddy Clark that played Charlie Parker's solos in unison and reached an unexpectedly wide audience. It made its debut in 1972; the first album Supersax Plays Bird won a Grammy in 1973. Reedman/ arranger Meredith Irwin 'Med' Flory (b 27 August 1926, Logansport IN; d 12 March 2014, North Hollywood CA) had left music after studio work in NYC and the West Coast; he was acting and writing TV scripts when he conceived Supersax with bassist Clark (b Walter Clark Jr, 10 July 1929, Kenosha WI; d 8 June 1999, Mission Hills CA). Clark played and recorded with a great many of jazz's biggest names, met Flory at the Monterey Jazz Festival '58, toured Europe with Jimmy Giuffre '59, played in the Gerry Mulligan concert band early '60s. He accompanied Peggy Lee and did a lot of studio work until Supersax, which he left '75 and mostly retired from music. Supersax's other LPs: Salt Peanuts and Supersax Plays Bird With Strings on Capitol; Chasin' The Bird and Dynamite '77-8 on MPS; three LPs with the L.A. Voices on CBS including Embraceable You, Vol. 2 and Straighten Up And Fly Right '82-6. Pianist Lou Levy (b 5 March 1928, Chicago; d 23 January 2001) was a member from late '73 to the 1980s; he also recorded with Chubby Jackson (Bebop Revisited on Xanadu), as accompanist for Peggy Lee, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra (My Way on Reprise) etc. Many musicians who've toured with Supersax included reedman Jack Nimitz (b 11 January 1930, Washington DC; d 10 June 2009), bassist Frank De La Rosa (b 26 December 1933, El Paso), Conte Candoli; Warne Marsh was with them in Chicago '76 when he took time off to make All Music on Nessa, with Levy, drummer Jake Hanna and bassist Fred Atwood. A CD The Joy Of Sax on Pair included Flory, Marsh, Candoli and Hanna. |