Andy Ennis, the “Dean of Baltimore Jazz” Dies at Age 86.
[Photo: Andy Ennis playing in the 1970s]
Saxophonist Andy Ennis, one the great artists of Baltimore’s jazz heyday, died on August 30, 2024, at the age of 86. Born and raised in Baltimore with his famous sister, vocalist Ethel Ennis, Andy Ennis was known as the “Dean” of Baltimore jazz. According to veteran jazz enthusiast Gary Ellerbe, Ennis was the man who held together the Monday night sessions back in the 1970s at the erstwhile Sportsman’s Lounge, after Mickey Fields, another saxophonist who was a Baltimore jazz institution, became ill. That session was an important opportunity for young musicians to hone their skills and network with older, more experienced players. As quoted in a September 11, 2024 article in the Baltimore Sun, Ennis’s friend and musical manager Rosa Pryor-Trust said, “Andy was low-key, humble and gifted. When playing at the Sportsmen’s Lounge, he would invite budding musicians, often as young as 14, on stage with him. He shared his gifts.”
Saxophonist John Lamkin II also remembers the first time he met Ennis at the Sportsman’s Lounge. “He had on a black leather overcoat, and he had his horn in a black leather gig bag slung across his shoulder. I remember him playing that afternoon with Mickey Fields, and they had an old-fashioned cutting session. It was amazing to hear the two of them trading fours.” Lamkin also recalls playing with Ennis at a jazz festival in Atlantic City in the late 1970s, in a band accompanying vocalist Demeta Joe. “His playing reminded me of Stanley Turrentine or Hank Mobley,” says Lamkin. (The photo with this article shows Ennis in this band, playing with Lamkin, on the left, and Carlos Johnson, in the center).
Besides the Sportman’s Lounge, Ennis played in various other Baltimore jazz clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue. He played with a vocal group called The Swallows and was part of Tracy McCleary’s Royal Men of Rhythm at the famous Royal Theater. He was invited to be lead saxophone in Ray Charles’s band The Raylettes, which performed in prominent venues across the globe.
More recently, Ennis was one of four major saxophonists performing together at Creative Alliance in March of 2013 as “Saxophone Collosi.” The others were Brad Collins, the late Sam King, and Tim Green. In his April 8, 2013 article on the Baltimore Jazz Alliance website, Andy Zaleski writes, “Ennis displayed his soulful, calm, complex chops in the first set’s ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’ (segueing seamlessly into a scat-sung “Moody’s Mood for Love”) and in a Sonny Rollins blues, the final tune of that set.”
As he aged, Ennis played less and less, due to hearing loss and other physical ailments. Earl Arnett, Ennis’s brother-in-law (husband of the late Ethel Ennis), recalls (as quoted in The Baltimore Sun, Sept. 11, 2024) that “Andy was known for his liveliness and sense of humor. He never took himself seriously and credited his grandmother’s prayers for keeping him somewhat on a straight path, never succumbing completely to a musician’s life of wine, women and song.”
–Liz Fixsen
Liz Fixsen is a jazz aficionada and semi-professional jazz vocalist and pianist who is a regular presence in the Baltimore jazz scene. She is a board member of the Baltimore Jazz Alliance and edits and writes for the BJA newsletter.