Harold E. Vick; Musician, Actor

Harold E. Vick, a veteran sideman who played saxophone and clarinet under such bandleaders as Dizzy Gillespie, Mercer Ellington, Nat Adderly and Benny Powell and who backed up many singers, among them Sarah Vaughan and Aretha Franklin, died Friday of a heart attack in New York City.

Vick was 51 and had overcome a massive heart attack in 1974 to return to work in films and clubs, and as an actor in such films as “Stardust Memories” and “Cotton Club.” Vick also was a composer for the motion picture “An Even Chance” and co-founded the Black Experience Family Repertory Co. in New York, for which he wrote music for a stage production underwritten by New York State’s Council for the Arts.

His other compositions include “Don’t Look Back,” “Night Flight” and “Out of It.” He will be seen again on screen when Spike Lee’s film “School Days” is released.