I first heard reed maestro Arlen Asher in concert at the Outpost in Albuquerque. I don’t remember too much about that evening—it was 25 years ago or so—but the audience was humming in anticipation of his appearance, a local guy I’d never heard of. I wondered what all the fuss was about. I soon found out.

What I do remember and will for a very long time is Arlen’s performance of “Willow Weep for Me.” It told me everything I needed to know about the man and the musician. His lines were liquid and lyrical, his tone silky, and he had an arresting and almost laconic clarity of expression that required no embellishment, that breathed freely and deeply while taking your breath away. Compassion and a straightforward honesty were at the heart of his playing, and he seldom, if ever, played a note that wasn’t needed.

Over the years that followed, I got to know Arlen a little, had the pleasure and honor to interview him a number of times, and got to hear him play fairly often—and it was always a pleasure. There are few people who can enter the solitude of a ballad and communicate its heart with the fearless generosity the way Arlen did. “On ballads, it’s kind of a matter of looking inside yourself,” he once told me. It takes a certain delicacy of spirit and a strong backbone to look the way Arlen did and to share it so unguardedly.

To top it off, he was a gracious gentleman without peer and an adored educator who taught literally thousands of childen about the rich rewards of music.

Arlen passed away on Friday evening, in his 92nd year. He had endured a number of major medical issues over the last few years, as well as the passing of his wife of over 59 years, Joetha, and his son Terry. A major stroke a couple of months ago almost did him in, but he rehabbed and was recovering when he developed pneumonia, which was the ticket to a permanent gig.

Over the next few weeks, his longtime friend and musical colleague John Trentacosta will feature Arlen’s music in the final hour of the Monday morning radio show that they’ve cohosted from 9:00 a.m. till noon for the last 10 years. So tune in to KSFR-FM (101.1 FM and KSFR.org) at 11:00 a.m. to pay tribute and catch some timeless music. In addition, a tribute to Arlen has been posted on the Santa Fe Music Collective’s website and Facebook page, featuring Arlen on different reeds from the two recordings he made with Trentacosta’s group Straight Up.

Godspeed, Arlen. You are loved and missed.

A brief profile
Back in 2011, I did a short profile of Arlen for Albuquerque The Magazine, which follows. Also, you can find a 2017 conversation I had with Arlen here, and a review of his last recording here.

A Jazz Gentleman

Somewhere around 1937 or 1938, electricity found its way to rural northern Missouri and forever changed the musical heritage of New Mexico. With electricity came the radio, and over the radio came Benny Goodman. For farmboy Arlen Asher, Benny Goodman and the clarinet opened a life in music that boyhood classical piano lessons had never suggested.

Now in his eighties—though you’d hardly know it given his energy on the bandstand—this venerated educator, woodwind player, broadcast veteran, and gentleman has taught the mysteries of clarinet, saxophone, and flute to a couple of thousand students over more than four decades, though Asher himself has never taken a lesson on these instruments. Via the invitation of his late wife, Joetha, an elementary school teacher, he also introduced many more to their first hands-on musical experience, bringing his instruments into her classroom and inviting students to play.

“I would teach them the basic embouchure—how to blow into it—and then I would do the actual fingering,” he says, “and we would actually play the song.”

Teaching was something of an accident, says Asher, who originally came to Albuquerque in 1958 to work as a producer/director at KNME. He quickly found his way into the jazz community through his first landlord, accordionist Hank Chinisci, with whom he formed the Arlen Asher Quintet in the early sixties. In the mid-sixties, he and guitarist Bob Brown founded the Arlen Asher–Bob Brown Quartet, which powered two jazz television series for KNME-TV and a series of concerts that featured guest artists such as trumpeter Clark Terry and vibist Gary Burton.

With his interest in broadcasting on the wane, Asher took a job as a salesman at a music store, where he also did some teaching. “I really enjoy immensely working with kids—with people, not just kids,” he says. “I found that the rapport seemed to establish itself rather easily with students, and it just developed from there.”

In 1994, Asher joined drummer John Trentacosta’s group, Straight Up, and his elegant and expressive playing has been a mainstay of their performances ever since. “Arlen plays from his heart all the time,” says Trentacosta, who also cohosts “The Jazz Experience” on KSFR (101.1) with Asher on Monday mornings from 9:00 to noon. “He’s a tremendously gifted lyrical player, a humble human being, a giving human being. He instills love for the music in his students and his fellow players. He’s a beautiful human being—of course beautiful music is going to come out of him.”

In other words, if you get a chance to hear Asher blow, don’t pass it up.

© 2020 Mel Minter