Mention the name of Marty Flax, a jazz multi-instrumentalist, and various keepers of strange and obscure lists of musicians inevitably come forward to acknowledge his importance. To start, he is one of the few players whose surname rhymes with their instrument, at least when Flax was playing sax and not flute, clarinet, or trombone. He makes an even shorter list of musicians whose surnames are identical to healthy food products, particularly for those with high blood pressure. The list Flax would be most proud of would be of the various big-band leaders he played for during his career -- some of whom, particularly Buddy Rich, were known for raising the blood pressure of their employees.

At any rate, the name Flax was an Americanization of Flachsenhaar. This artist was mostly known as a baritone saxophonist, performing and recording with an amazing range of bands including the jumping jive of Louis Jordan, the big band bebop of Dizzy Gillespie, the complex cartoon soundtrack creations of Raymond Scott, and the Latin sounds of Perez Prado and Tito Puente. Flax's first major professional gig was with bandleader Les Elgart in the second half of the '50s. Soon thereafter he got into a group Quincy Jones created for an extensive Gillespie tour that included State Department excursions through the Middle East and South America.

A few years later Flax was on a similar tour in South America, this time with the Woody Herman band. When he wasn't on the road, Flax had his own group going in this period with house band status at the Cafe Society venue. In the late '50s he worked with composer, pianist, and bandleader Claude Thornhill. By 1967, when he began slowing down his activities, Flax had played on nearly 40 albums of jazz as well as various recording dates with vocal music artists such as Sammy Davis, Jr. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi