Ace Cannon, the “Godfather of Sax,” died at his home in Calhoun City this morning.
Service information is not yet known. We will share that as soon as it is available.
An inductee of numerous Hall of Fames including Mississippi Musicians,' Smithsonian Rock and Soul, International Rockabilly, Memphis Music and North America Country Music, Ace Cannon, 84, has been universally recognized as one of the best saxophone players of all time.
Peggy Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Musicians’ Hall of Fame, made the official presentation.
“Mississippi has earned more Grammy nominations than any other state,” Brown said. “Ace has certainly helped with that.”
Ace Cannon
Henry Harrison, curator of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, Tenn., talked about his memories of seeing Ace play at the Green Beetle in Memphis.
“I remember patrons trying to throw quarters in Ace’s saxophone while he was playing,” Harrison laughed. “He would just play louder.”
“Ace Cannon is one of those who changed music all around the world,” Harrison said. “I remember watching the Ed Sullivan Show or Merv Griffin Show and Ace always seemed to be there playing in the band. Whenever Elvis, Carl Perkins or the many other great musicians coming out of Memphis needed saxophone, they called Ace.”
Harrison said Ace’s greatest touch, however, is his ability to relate to everyone.
“Out of all the artists I’ve known, I’ve never seen one reach the height of success that Ace has and have the common touch with his community,” Harrison said. “He is a genius with the sax and a gentleman of the South.”
Ace Cannon started his career in Memphis, Tennessee, recording on many of the 1950's hits on Sun Records. "Ace Cannon is the greatest saxophone player who ever lived, but then he came out of the same stables as Carl Perkins, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Bill Justice, etc," said Sam Phillips.
In 1959 he started with the Bill Black Combo, (which was one of the most popular instrumental groups of their era,) in the U.S. and the Bahamas, where he traveled on all concert dates and played the lead saxophone on all the original recordings. They appeared on the most prominent TV shows of that era, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, Dick Clark's American Bandstand, and The Buddy Dean Show in Baltimore, MD.
In 1962, Ace recorded the instrumental smash "TUFF". Since that time he has recorded 67 albums and 46 singles. The kind that get nominated for Grammy Awards such as his recording of "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain," million selling TV albums such as "Golden Classics," "The Entertainer" and when paired with trumpeter legend Al Hirt resulted in a historic duet TV album of country classics that could be one of the biggest TV albums in history.
In 1986, he performed on The Class of '55 album which brought together Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison for a first. This led Ace and Carl Perkins to perform together for the entire year of 1986, playing show dates all over the U.S., and a tour of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and the World's Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ace Cannon made numerous appearances on "Nashville Now", "New Country", Charlie Daniel's Jam", and "Fan Fair." He traveled far and wide appearing at concerts, clubs, fairs and major festivals. Also in 1986, he was asked by Dick Clark to join the All Star Band for the Country Music Academy TV Special.
Ace is considered a musical genius even as far away as the Caribbean, where more than 23,000 people once showed up for two sold-out shows at The Spectakula Forum and Queen's Park in tiny Port of Spain, Trinidad. This has been the main reason Ace was asked to return on more than a dozen tours in the Caribbean which included the islands of Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago and British Guyana, South America, Hamilton, Bermuda since 1975.
The 1990's were great for Ace as he has recorded two new CDs for WIRL records located in Barbados, entitled Music For Lovers, and Sweet Dreams. They were also distributed in the U.S. with tremendous response.
In 1997, Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana, two of the original Elvis Presley Band, recorded an album entitled "All The Kings Men", which consisted of 11 songs by various artists, such as Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, Steve Earl, Ronnie McDowell and The Bill Black Combo. Of the 11 songs on the record, The Bill Black Combo selection was nominated for a Grammy Award. This was an exciting honor for Ace, as this was a group he started his career with.