Fred Lipsius (born 19 November 1943 in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

) is an American musician who is the original saxophonist and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

for the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears, for which he played

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. He was with the band from 1967 to 1971 and has collected 3

GRAMMY Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and 9 Gold Records. Before Blood, Sweat & Tears, Lipsius played with the

Ronn Metcalfe Ronn Metcalfe (July 20, 1930May 18, 1969) was a Canadian big band leader from St. Catharines and music industry leader. He released an LP named after the title track " Twistin' at the Woodchopper's Ball" which garnered him a gold record. He used ...

Orchestra. Lipsius has performed with

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...

, and jazz greats

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", whi ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

, Eddie Gómez, Al Foster, George Mraz, Larry Willis, Randy Brecker, and Rodney Jones. He has written music for and performed on over 30 CDs as both a leader and sideman. He has authored six books on jazz improvisation and jazz reading. In 2020, Lipsius retired from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

in Boston, Massachusetts, USA after teaching full-time for 35 years. In retirement, Lipsius has focused his efforts on his visual art. He has been creating digital pieces since 2000 and has had a number of public showings, some of which have been accompanied by his music. Lipsius creates his pieces with Photoshop and other materials and has said of his art, "Producing this art has been nothing but fun and a big gift for me. My pieces are mostly improvised with little or no preconceived idea of what they should be. In viewing my art, please know that anything you can imagine already exists somewhere!” Lipsius has recently listed some of his pieces as NFTs (

non-fungible tokens A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the b ...

) on OpenSea.

Biography

Born in the Bronx, New York City on November 19, 1943, Lipsius began playing the clarinet at age 9, alto and tenor saxophones in junior high school, and the piano at Music and Art High School in Manhattan. He continued his studies at Berklee School of Music (1961–62). Lipsius was a saxophonist, arranger and conductor with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1967 to 1971. He also doubled on keyboards. While with the band, he won nine Gold Records plus a Grammy Award for his arrangement of "

Spinning Wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning f ...

". Lipsius also arranged and co-arranged, respectively, the hit singles "Hi-De-Ho" and "

You've Made Me So Very Happy "You've Made Me So Very Happy" is a song written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy, and was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label. The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock ...

". In both the

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

and Playboy jazz polls he placed in the top ten of the alto sax category. Lipsius has composed, arranged and produced radio and TV commercials, including 2 CBS TV logos- themes introducing the season's upcoming shows. In the spring of 1982, he toured in Japan and Europe with Simon and Garfunkel.

References

External links

Fred Lipsius' OpenSea NFT Collection

Fred Lipsius' Music website

Fred Lipsius' YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipsius, Fred 1943 births Living people American clarinetists American rock musicians American male saxophonists People from the Bronx Berklee College of Music faculty Grammy Award winners Blood, Sweat & Tears members 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American saxophonists American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 21st-century clarinetists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians