OBITUARY 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Saxophonist Fred Ford, a versatile jazz and rhythm  and blues musician who recorded with B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis, died  Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 69.  Ford, a mainstay of the Memphis music scene, was known for his baritone sax  skills. He played on hundreds of sessions, including recordings with Rufus  Thomas, Lightnin' Hopkins, Charlie Rich and Junior Parker.  Ford started playing professionally with the Douglass Swingsters Orchestra  and the Andrew Chaplin Band in the late 1940s, before graduating from high  school.  His most famous recording - the 1952 classic ``Hound Dog'' by Big Mama  Thornton - had him barking instead of playing sax.  ``It's basically drums and guitar and a little bass,'' said producer Jim  Dickinson. ``And the horn players were all sitting around because they had  been called for the session. And they barked at the end like dogs!''           Fred Ford, Versatile Veteran Saxophonist, Dies At 69                      Saxophonist Fred Ford, whose career spanned recordings                      from a diverse set of artists that includes Little Richard,                      Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Alex Chilton, died Friday                      (Nov. 26) in Memphis, Tenn., after a battle with cancer. He                      was 69.                       Ford began his professional career in the late 1940s with                      such groups as the Douglass Swingsters Orchestra and the                      Andrew Chaplin Band, and would later be featured on Brown's                      historic recordings for the Peacock label, as well as on Jerry                      Lee Lewis' Sun Records sessions and Rufus Thomas' popular                      Funky Chicken album.                       A blues/jazz/R&B fixture among Memphis musicians, Ford                      played baritone sax -- only occasionally alto or tenor -- for a                      wide variety of artists. He recorded with blues and soul                      legends B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Junior Parker, Esther                      Phillips and Big Mama Thornton. (On Thornton's original                      version of "Hound Dog," Ford is heard in the background,                      although he's making barking noises rather than blowing his                      sax.)                       In the '90s, Ford appeared on a series of albums with                      singer-songwriter and fellow Memphian Chilton that included                      Feudalist Tarts, Man Called Destruction and High Priest.                                                            -- Drew Wheeler

 

 

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