Clarence Ford

Clarence Joseph Ford, Sr. (December 16, 1929 – August 9, 1994) was an American saxophonist and clarinetist, who played and recorded with many of New Orleans' leading R&B and jazz artists in a career spanning more than 40 years.

Life Clarence Ford was born December 16, 1929, at Charity Hospital in New Orleans to Hampy Ford and Elouise A. Gabriel Ford. Elouise was a member of the musical Gabriel family. The New Orleans Gabriel family lived at 409 N. Miro Street. Elouise's brothers were musicians. Little Manny played saxophone and clarinet, and was a drummer with Louis Armstrong before the latter moved to Chicago to join King Oliver's band in 1922. Clarence was a pianist and Percy a bassist. Little Manny started nephew Clarence Ford and son Charles on clarinet as young teenagers. Big Manny's sons Martin ("Little Manny") and Percy Gabriel moved their families to Detroit, Michigan in the 1940s to work in the automobile industry. Charles moved to Detroit at age 14, later playing with Lionel Hampton, Nancy Wilson, J.C. Heard, and Aretha Franklin. He returned to New Orleans in 2009 to play in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Clarence Ford had his initial professional job at age 15 with the Eureka Brass Band in 1945 when he played E-flat clarinet at a Mardi Gras gig. He said in an interview that at the time he only knew three songs-- "The Saints", "Lady Be Good", and "Panama". after switching to alto saxophone. He bought his first alto sax at Werlein's for Music in New Orleans, and his idol was Charlie Parker. Ford joined the Johnson Brothers band in 1949. Ford recorded for the first time on the Johnson Brothers' De Luxe Records release "Mellow Mama" whose band included Bartholomew on trumpet, Earl Palmer on drums, Red Tyler, Clarence Hall and Meyer Kennedy on saxophones, Salvador Doucette on piano, and Frank Fields on bass. Ford played on recordings by Dave Bartholomew's band, and other artists he produced. He worked a day job with Joe Jones at a New Orleans paper company. In 1954 he and friend trumpeter Dalton "Red" Rousseau were hired by manager Hosea Hill to play in Guitar Slim's band. Ford was recruited as a baritone sax player and, since he did not own a baritone sax, borrowed one from friend Ellis Marsalis, who had switched to piano. On the road Slim rode ahead in his Cadillac, and the band rode behind with the equipment in a station wagon. Ford stayed with Guitar Slim until 1956, then returned home to New Orleans. He worked days at the Dixie Beer brewery making $6 a day. Fats and his band continued to make appearances on network television and in Hollywood films. Though they were the most popular rock and roll outfit in the United States with many white fans, Jim Crow restrictions kept them from staying in white hotels and eating at white restaurants and forced them to use "For Colored Only" facilities. The venues they played were segregated by police. At their shows crowds were separated into whites on the floor and blacks in the balcony, or by a painted line or rope down the center of the theater. In 1957, Ford's first year with the outfit, the Domino band traveled 13,000 miles across the United States and played 355 shows at sold-out venues whenever they performed. In a 1972 interview Domino said of former band members, "A couple of ‘em got killed, a couple of ‘em died." Clarence Ford walked with a cane in his later years due to injuries from the automobile accident in 1970. The trio, like bands when Ford started out, was "playing a little bit of everything." He kept the jazz trio gig at the hotel until his death. He is featured on the 2015 release by 504 Records "The Ed Frank Quartet Featuring Clarence Ford", recorded in 1991 and 1992. Ford worked with New Orleans producers Dave Bartholomew and Allen Toussaint, among others. The Fords' son Louis is an accomplished clarinetist, saxophonist, and teacher who studied with Kidd Jordan and noted clarinetist and educator Alvin Baptiste. Grandson Thaddeus Ford is a trumpeter and keyboardist who took lessons from Clarence Ford before studying music at Southern University in Baton Rouge and the University of New Orleans. Clarence Ford died of a heart attack after a trio gig at the Marriott Hotel on August 9, 1994.