Mention the name of
Marty Flax, a jazz multi-instrumentalist, and various keepers of strange and obscure lists of musicians inevitably come forward to acknowledge his importance. To start, he is one of the few players whose surname rhymes with their instrument, at least when
Flax was playing sax and not flute, clarinet, or trombone. He makes an even shorter list of musicians whose surnames are identical to healthy food products, particularly for those with high blood pressure. The list
Flax would be most proud of would be of the various big-band leaders he played for during his career -- some of whom, particularly
Buddy Rich, were known for raising the blood pressure of their employees.
At any rate, the name
Flax was an Americanization of Flachsenhaar. This artist was mostly known as a baritone saxophonist, performing and recording with an amazing range of bands including the jumping jive of
Louis Jordan, the big band bebop of
Dizzy Gillespie, the complex cartoon soundtrack creations of
Raymond Scott, and the Latin sounds of Perez Prado and
Tito Puente.
Flax's first major professional gig was with bandleader Les Elgart in the second half of the '50s. Soon thereafter he got into a group
Quincy Jones created for an extensive
Gillespie tour that included State Department excursions through the Middle East and South America.
A few years later
Flax was on a similar tour in South America, this time with the
Woody Herman band. When he wasn't on the road,
Flax had his own group going in this period with house band status at the Cafe Society venue. In the late '50s he worked with composer, pianist, and bandleader
Claude Thornhill. By 1967, when he began slowing down his activities,
Flax had played on nearly 40 albums of jazz as well as various recording dates with vocal music artists such as
Sammy Davis, Jr. ~ Eugene Chadbourne