Ed Xiques

Edward F. "Ed" Xiques, Jr. (born October 9, 1939, Staten Island, New York; died December 4, 2020, Las Cruces, NM) was an American jazz saxophonist.

Xiques grew up in Pelham Manor, NY. When he was 9 years old, his father gave him a soprano saxophone, which he carried to school every day, wrapped in a blanket. Xiques received his bachelor's degree in music education from Boston University in 1962, where he played with Jaki Byard and Herb Pomeroy. Returning to New York, he taught in New York schools for much of the 1960s, and played on the side with Buddy Morrow, Les and Larry Elgart, Duke Pearson, and Woody Herman. He worked full-time as a musician from 1968, playing extensively with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in the 1970s as well as with Ten Wheel Drive, Frank Foster, Bill Watrous' Manhattan Wildlife Refuge and McCoy Tyner. In the 1980s he worked frequently with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Liza Minnelli, and later was a member of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, the NY Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Diana Moser's Composers Big Band [1] and the groups of Mario Bauza and Maria Schneider. From the late 1990s until his retirement in 2018, he taught music at Vassar College. [2]

Xiques most recently lived in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. He died December 4, 2020 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. [3][4]