CHICAGO – Blues saxophonist A.C. Reed, who combined a simple, eloquent style of play with an offbeat sense of humor and performed with the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, is dead at age 77.
Reed, whose songs tended to mock the music industry and often had humorous titles, such as “I’m in the Wrong Business’’ and “I Am Fed Up With This Music,’’ died Wednesday of complications from cancer.
He performed until two months before his death.
“He played blues of the first-class quality,’’ said Grammy Award-winning blues vocalist Koko Taylor, a friend of Reed’s for 40 years. “Everyone knew him for his good music. It was just so good to listen to.’’
Born Aaron Corthen in Wardell, Mo., Reed was raised in southern Illinois and moved to Chicago during World War II to work at a steel mill.
He bought a saxophone at a pawn shop with his first paycheck and studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, according to officials of Alligator Records, the company Reed worked with for 25 years.
Reed toured with the late Earl Hooker and Dennis ”Long Man’’ Binder in the 1950s, collaborated with Buddy Guy and the late Junior Wells in the 1960s and joined the Rolling Stones tour in 1970.
He began fronting his own band in the 1980s.
“In terms of the blues world if you were asked to name the best-known living sax players, he would be one of the three or four, worldwide,’’ said Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records. Reed is survived by his sister, Sarah Corthen.
His funeral is planned for March 6 in Carbondale, said Marc Lipkin, an Alligator Records spokesman.
