A.C. Reed

When tenor saxophonist A.C. Reed voices onstage grievances about his circumstances, audiences may conclude that he genuinely loathes performing. The laments amount to playful exaggeration, however, since his gritty, low-down saxophone lines and unhurried singing convey no trace of disinterest.

Few Chicago blues leaders front bands on tenor saxophone; aside from Eddie Shaw, Reed stands virtually alone in that role. Born Aaron Corthen in Missouri and raised in downstate Illinois, he may or may not share lineage with Jimmy Reed, though his unhurried vocal phrasing unmistakably echoes the earlier artist. A devotee of big-band sounds, Reed first lifted a saxophone after hearing Paul Bascomb’s solo on a little-known Erskine Hawkins 78 spinning in a tavern jukebox.

He reached Chicago amid the war years and secured steady work with Earl Hooker and Willie Mabon before the decade closed. In 1956 Reed aligned with Dennis “Long Man” Binder, a former associate of Ike Turner, and spent an extended stretch working the Southwest. During the early 1960s he became a dependable session musician for Mel London’s Age and Chief imprints, appearing on recordings by Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, and Hooker while also issuing his own locally successful 1961 Age single, “This Little Voice.”

Further Age titles followed—“Come on Home,” “Mean Cop,” and “I Stay Mad.” Additional 45s appeared on USA in 1963 (“I’d Rather Fight Than Switch”), on Cool in 1966 (“My Baby Is Fine,” a number he has revisited repeatedly), on Nike the same year (“Talkin’ ’Bout My Friends”), and on T.D.S. in 1969 (“Things I Want You to Do”).

Reed entered Buddy Guy’s employ in 1967, traveled with the guitarist to Africa two years later, and, once Junior Wells joined the lineup, performed as the opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1970. He parted ways with both Guy and Wells in 1977, subsequently joining Son Seals and then the Master of the Telecaster, Albert Collins. Reed contributed to Collins’ first five Alligator albums, among them the landmark Ice Pickin’.

While still touring with Collins, Reed revived his own recording career, placing four tracks on the second installment of Alligator’s Living Chicago Blues series in 1980 and issuing two full albums: Take These Blues and Shove ’Em! in 1982 on Ice Cube Records, a label he co-owned with drummer Casey Jones, and I’m in the Wrong Business! five years later on Alligator, which featured guest appearances by Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Until his death from cancer in February 2004, Reed continued to lead his Spark Plugs on the Chicago club circuit.