Jim King (saxophonist)

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Jim King (born James King, May 5, 1942 in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England) was an original member of the British rock band Family. He played saxophone and harmonica, and sang occasional lead vocals on the band's first two albums, Music in a Doll's House and Family Entertainment. King also sang the entire lead vocal on "Observations From a Hill," a song on the latter album.

King formed the Farinas, a blues based-rock and roll group, with guitarist Charlie Whitney in Leicester, England in 1962. He was the group's lead singer until Roger Chapman joined in 1966, at which point the group had begun to perform under the name The Roaring Sixties. The name Family was decided upon later. King's influence on the group's first two albums can be heard clearly with his freewheeling saxophone solos and his blues-based harmonica passages. Because he fulfilled the same role in Family that Chris Wood did in Traffic, comparisons between the two were inevitable. Interestingly, an American blues-rock band, the J. Geils Band out of Boston, Massachusetts, also adopted the idea of a full-time sax/harmonica player by employing Richard "Magic Dick" Salwitz.

King's playing on record tended to be quite esoteric, as Family were in their psychedelic mode during his time in the band, and he began to experiment wildly with jazz influences. However, King's heavy drug use forced him out of the band by late 1969. King has largely avoided the limelight since.

[edit] Reference

Strange Band: The Family Home Page

Family
Roger Chapman | John "Charlie" Whitney | Jim King | Ric Grech | Rob Townsend
Harry Ovenall | John Weider | John "Poli" Palmer | John Wetton | Jim Cregan | Tony Ashton
Discography
Studio albums: Music in a Doll's House | Family Entertainment | A Song For Me | Anyway | Fearless | Bandstand | It's Only a Movie