Saxophonist Jeff Marx, Who Toured the World, Dies at 62

December 19, 2013, 3:19 PM by  Allan Lengel


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Jeff Marx

Oak Park native Jeff Marx, a world class jazz musician who played at the Detroit jazz festival as well as gigs around the country and Europe,  died Monday at his father's home in Bingham Farms after battling cancer for several years. He was 62.

Marx played the tenor and the mezzo soprano saxophone, and took a keen interest in jazz at an early age.

"He was very serious about his music and he had a great sense of humor," said David Techner, the funeral director for Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield,  who was a life long friend. "He was just a good hearted guy. Everybody loved him."

"I've been doing this for over 40 years," Techner said. "He set a record for friends  being at somebody's house when they died. I pulled up to his dad's house. I had to almost park a block away because of the cars."

Techner said while growing up Marx  would hang out at the Oak Park Park and play sports. But he wasn't particularly good, even though he was one of the tallest guys around.

"Jeff used to always say his height was wasted on him," Techner said. "He wasn't an athlete."

"We called him a gentle giant," he said, adding that people thought  he looked like a young version of Rock Hudson. 

"Rock Hudson was the Brad Pitt 40 or 50 years ago," Techner said.

Marx graduated from Oak Park High in 1969  and briefly went to college before pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles.

"I think he did a little acting, but he didn't like the scene," recalled Todd Weinstein, a professional photographer in New York who was a friend of Marx since childhood when they went to Pepper Elementary School in Oak Park.

In the 1970s,  Marx headed to Berkeley to study with accomplished saxophonist Hal Stein. 

According to his bio on his website,  the Oakland and San Francisco jazz scene was hot.

His bio went on to say:

"Once jazz was in his blood, Marx went to New York for 14 years where he played with Reggie Workman, Steve Slagle, Guitarist Kevin McNeil, Donald Byrd, Ed Schuler, Jim Pepper, Gene Jackson, Ira Coleman, Santi DeBriano and Dave Stryker among others. For five years, he co-led in Second Sight with John Esposito, Jeff Siegel and Dave Douglas who was named Downbeat's "Musician of the year in 2000."

His albums included "Treading Air Breathing Fire" on Soluna Records and "Dreamstuff" with Jeff "Siege" Siegel on drums . 

He eventually moved to Chicago, but returned in 2012 when his mother was sick. She died about a year ago. He stuck around to battle cancer of the digestive track and to be with his father.

Because he was always taller than everyone -- he was about 6' 5" -- and looked older, his father told people other adults expected more from him. 

But Weinstein said, he was just one of us.

"He was a great artist," Weinstein said. "He had a wide interest in many things. He was the king of prank. He once ordered 20 pizzas to a friends house in high school.  But he wasn't malicious."

Weinstein said Marx never let the cancer get the best of him or define who he was.

"His music became his spirituality," Weinstein said. "But through all of that, he had a light side. "

Visit Jeff Marx's website.



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