“Music started when I was five years old. My mama taught me how to play the piano, and I loved it from the beginning. The first song I learned was “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” 

I grew up in Prichard, Alabama. Music was tremendously influential in our community. Jazz, blues, and gospel made a big impact on me. I also played drums, but my music teacher told me I needed to learn how to play the soprano saxophone instead. So that’s what I wound up doing.

I played in a lot of bands. Each instrument I came in touch with, I learned. Drums, guitar, bass, saxophone. I majored in clarinet and flute at Florida A&M University. The instruments just came to me.

I played with the Excelsior Band for 58 years. That was my biggest influence. Then I had my own 12-piece band–Theodore Arthur and the Gulf Coast Jazz and Blues Orchestra. I got to play all the songs I enjoyed, everything I could play. It was tremendous. I also played with Boobie Bland, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, and Ike and Tina Turner. I’ve been all over the world playing. I even had my own record label and publishing company. 

Never could have guessed all the places music would take me when I was a kid in Pritchard learning piano and saxophone. Mobile means a great deal to me. That’s why I give back to kids here and teach music lessons at community centers four days a week. I’ve been teaching lessons for over 30 years. It keeps the foundation steady.

I’m 83. The largest problem I’m having now is financial. I’ve been real sick, and these problems have put me down. I don’t know anything that more damaging or disappointing than not being able to keep going musically. And I can’t earn money when I don’t play.  I’m ready to play music for Mobile again. “

Theodore Arthur  (Photo by Steve Joynt)

Mr. Arthur was in the hospital for four weeks and has been in a rehabilitation facility for two weeks. If you want to help Mr. Arthur with his medical bills and to get back on his feet, here’s the link to the GoFundMe set up by his daughter.

Here’s a bit of what Catt Sirten wrote about Mr. Arthur in a story for Mobile Bay Magazine

For some people, 50 years seems like an eternity. But for those who do what they love, the time goes by in a blink. Saxophone player Theodore Arthur Jr. firmly belongs in the latter category.

On stage since he was 10, the dapper 68-year-old proudly claims never to have had an “8-to-5 gig.” He was always able to support his family by playing music professionally. And play he has — Ike and Tina Turner, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Solomon Burke and Aretha Franklin have all experienced the Mobile native’s talents.

Arthur began his musical career as a drummer at Engine Street Junior High, which eventually became Blount High School. Migrating from drums to clarinet, he followed an oft-traveled route through the school band, but the saxophone became the key that took him beyond the city limit signs.

At 19, with the recommendation of B.B. King bassist and fellow Mobilian Marshall York, Arthur took a job with the velvet-smooth Little Junior Parker, who would later be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Some of Arthur’s recordings with Parker are still available.

Before long, fellow road warriors noticed Arthur’s talents. During the next couple of years, Solomon Burke, Jerry Butler and other big-name acts who needed a top-notch sax player came calling.

Here’s an interview he did with Fox 10

Here’s a story Lawrence Specker wrote about Mr. Arthur