
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990                   TAG: 9003262126
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AL SEARS, JAZZ SAXOPHONIST, DIES

Al Sears, a tenor saxophonist in major jazz bands and an original swing arranger whose own band toured U.S. Army camps in World War II, died of lung cancer on Friday at his home in New York. He was 80.

Sears, whose style combined many contrasts and inflections that alternated with enthusiastic staccato passages, played with Elmer Snowden, Andy Kirk, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges. His recordings included "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" with Ellington (1945), "Castle Rock" and "Something to Pat Your Foot To" with Mr. Hodges (1951) and, under the Sears name, "Nell, Don't Wear No Button-Up Shoes" (1951).

Sears, a native of Macomb, Ill., is survived by his wife, Ruth; a son, Albert Jr., also of New York; a daughter, Sylvia Cartwright of Phoenix, Ariz., and three grandchildren.

by CNB