Sax Kari

Sax Kari (February 6, 1920 – October 1, 2009), born Isaac Columbus Toombs Jr., was an American multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, A&R man and promoter, who had a wide variety of roles during a career in African American entertainment and R&B music lasting from the 1920s to the 1990s. He also used pseudonyms, including Ira Green, Texas Red, Dirty Red Morgan, and Candy Yams.

Life and career He was born in Chicago, the son of Tennessee-born Isaac Columbus Toombs and his wife Irene. As a child, he ran away from home and from the age of nine performed in vaudeville as a comic entertainer with Butterbeans and Susie, who gave him the nickname "Candy Yams" for his relatively light freckled complexion. He learned to play piano, guitar, and reed instruments, and by 1940 was living in Gary, Indiana, with his mother. He worked in bands as a guitarist, and in 1942 took Charlie Christian's place in the orchestra at the Lyon's Den club in Oklahoma City. In 1953, he released his most successful record, "Daughter (That's Your Red Wagon)", an answer song to Ruth Brown's "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean", which reached No. 8 on the Billboard R&B chart. The record was credited to "Swinging Sax Kari" and featured singer Gloria Irving.

During the 1950s he worked with Houston promoter Don Robey. In the mid-1950s in Detroit, he produced early recording sessions with Della Reese, as well as recording novelty records such as "Chocolate Fizz" and "Goldie the Green-Eyed Octopus" under his own name, on a variety of mostly small independent labels. In 1959, he produced the single "You're So Fine" by The Falcons, a group that included Mack Rice, Eddie Floyd and Robert Ward. The song reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 17 on the pop chart. He composed the soundtrack for the 1978 blaxploitation movie The Six Thousand Dollar Nigger, also known as Super Soul Brother, starring Wildman Steve. Sax Kari died in Florida in 2009, aged 89.

A compilation of his New Orleans recordings, Fumigate Funky Broadway, was issued on CD in 2002.