Sax man Vance E. Wilson dies at 85

Vance E. Wilson was a sax man much in demand by musical groups in the '40s, '50s and '60s looking for a performer with style and verve.

He was playing with an 18-piece orchestra in Philadelphia in 1958 when Steve Gibson and the Red Caps came to town in need of a tenor sax. They hired Vance, and he performed with the group for a few years as they became popular, performing at clubs and theaters and making records.

Vance Wilson, who toured until he just didn't feel like keeping up with hectic pace of traveling and settled down in Philly to work 40 years as a crane operator for General Electric, died Tuesday. He was 85 and lived in West Philadelphia.

Another feature of band travel that Vance really detested was touring in the Jim Crow South. Playing with predominantly black groups, he balked at their having to hire a white bus driver to take them through some of the Deep South states.

Even in Washington, D.C., management at a club where the band was working warned members not to mingle with the white audience, but to stay in their dressing rooms.

As a native of Lancaster and longtime Philadelphian, Vance wasn't accustomed to such treatment. He refused to play with groups that did a lot touring in the South.

Over the years, Vance played sax with Philly-based Chris Powell's Five Blue Flames and appeared with such performers as Tammi Terrell, Johnny Mathis, Little Richard and Harry Belafonte. Many of the names that became prominent later were not well-known in those days, including Belafonte.

His wife, the former Sarah Henson, said Vance recalled that once while playing at the Latin Casino in Jersey, Belafonte came up to him and asked if he knew him. Vance said he knew that Belafonte was the man nobody wanted to hear sing because he was into calypso.

He was a friend of Count Basie's, but resisted joining his orchestra because by that time he was tired of traveling.

Vance also played lead tenor and alto sax on Clifford Brown's recording of "The Beginning and the End," released in 1973.

Even after he went to work for GE's plant at 70th Street and Woodland Avenue, Vance would play locally. He played at a private club downtown where he worked from midnight to 4 a.m.

"He'd come home, put on his pajamas, sleep a half hour, and go off to work at GE," said his wife.

Vance was born in Lancaster, where he attended public school. He served in the Army on the home front during World War II.

He became interested in playing the sax after his older brother, Charles, who played the instrument, died. Vance used to look at the sax and decided he wanted to play one. His mother was opposed to him using Charles' horn so he got a job and bought his own.

He studied for a time with a teacher in Lancaster, then, after arriving in Philadelphia, enrolled in the Ornstein School of Music - which John Coltrane attended - where he also studied classical music.

In 1950, he married Sarah Henson on Valentine's Day.

"Everybody loved him," his wife said. "He'd have everybody laughing. He loved to talk."

Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Diane Willis; a son, Vance E. Wilson Jr.; a sister, Gloria Giles; two grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. A sister, Doris Boins, died last Christmas.

Services: 11 a.m. Wednesday at Community Baptist Church, 40th and Spring Garden streets. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Fernwood Cemetery.