Martin Fierro (saxophonist)

Music career

Fierro was born in Mexico in 1942 and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He taught himself how to play saxophone and as a teenager participated in rock bands. He concentrated on jazz in his early 20s. He toured Mexico with a band, then moved to San Francisco and joined Mother Earth, a blues rock group led by Tracy Nelson. He became a member of the rock band the Sir Douglas Quintet in 1968. He also played with Quicksilver Messenger Service and James Cotton.

In 1971s, Fierro played saxophone and flute on Hooteroll?, an instrumental, free-form album by guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboard player Howard Wales. Three years later he joined another project by Garcia known as Legion of Mary. Like Garcia's Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary combined rock and blues with long improvisation. He appeared on the Dead's album Wake of the Flood in 1973 and toured with them that year.

In 1988, Fierro joined the Bay Area Jam Band Zero alongside founding members Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, and Greg Anton. The band is generally regarded as one of the foundational examples that pioneered the jam band style of playing. His tenure with the band would garner praise and even more affirmation of his improvisational prowess. In later years he played with the jam bands the String Cheese Incident and the Dark Star Orchestra.

He was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2008.

Discography

With James Cotton

With Mother Earth

With Sir Douglas Quintet

With Quicksilver Messenger Service

With Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead/Legion of Mary

With Merl Saunders

With Zero

With the String Cheese Incident