After clarinetist and saxophonist Joseph Aaron, 93, died on June 7, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 10 published an article celebrating his some 80 years of music-making in Milwaukee, primarily in jazz.
But the local Jewish community has its own reasons to mourn Aaron’s death and celebrate his life. He was also renowned in Milwaukee’s Jewish cultural scene.
For 30 years (1977-2007), Aaron played in the Summer Evenings of Jewish Music series, held originally at the old Jewish Community Center on Prospect Ave. in Milwaukee, then at the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC in Whitefish Bay.
“When Joe would come, I knew we would have an audience of over 300,” said Lorraine Cohen, the coordinator of the Summer Evenings series. “We had four programs and I always knew the fourth program would always be Joe and [his flutist son] Rick.”
Aaron “would draw a crowd even though the program was always the same,” Cohen continued. “People loved him because he was so funny. There wasn’t another jazz player in the community who could compete with him.”
She said Joe was well-versed in Yiddish and knew all the right things to say to his audience to keep them engaged. Although his main focus was jazz, Cohen said Aaron enjoyed klezmer, the eastern European Jewish instrumental music that has enjoyed a recent revival.
But then, according to his son, Joe could play everything.
“He was comfortable playing in a jazz club, or in the symphony,” Rick Aaron said. “He musically covered it all. He was a giant in the musical community of Milwaukee. He was incredibly respected by musicians, he was loved by audiences.”
At a very early age, Joe was taught to play several different instruments. His parents were immigrants from Russia, and his father was a trumpet player.
As Joe told The Chronicle in an article published in the Aug. 23, 1991, issue, “I come from a family where everybody had to play something.”
At age 14, he mastered the clarinet, and in the early 1930s, he joined the Aaron family band. The family played Jewish music throughout the community and were so well liked, they were continually asked to play at weddings, bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, and other events.
Joe said he was influenced by such renowned jazz clarinetists as Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman.
One of his first professional gigs outside the family band included playing in the pit at the Riverside Theater. Joe’s brother, Abe, had been a musician there and left to tour with the Les Brown Band. Joe took his place.
In the 1940s, Joe toured with Clyde McCoy and His Orchestra. In the 1960s, he played with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and even landed a job in the band at WTMJ-TV when the television station employed 35 full-time musicians.
Following his stints in big bands and three years of U.S. Army service during World War II, Joe became a teacher. He was first hired at Juneau High School in the music department.
After about seven years, he then taught social studies and math for about the next 30. When he was asked why he changed subjects, Joe would say, “Because when the kids make a mistake in math, you don’t hear it.”
Nevertheless, as Joe told The Chronicle in 1991, “I used to perform quite often at school band and orchestra concerts and assemblies. The kids were kind of impressed with that sort of thing.”
Joe was then hired at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a saxophone instructor. He taught there for eight years and was a long-time supporter of the UWM School of Education.
“He had a very long teaching career,” both in schools and privately, Rick said. “There’s probably not a sax player in the Milwaukee community over the age of 25 who hadn’t heard of or learned from Joe.”
It wasn’t just Joe’s teaching ability that students sought. His daughter, Marlene (Dr. Marvin) Lauwasser, said his humor was infectious and he had a way with making everyone feel comfortable around him.
“My father was one of the most humble and warm human beings that I’ve ever met,” Lauwasser said. “His humility made him special.”
Lauwasser said Joe was still teaching even up to a few months before his death, even volunteering at Maple Dale-Indian Hill Elementary School on Mondays.
He also kept his sense of humor. Lauwasser said she visited him in a rehab facility recently and he was playing his clarinet loudly. She asked him to be quieter. He replied, “No one can hear in here anyway.”
In addition to his children, Joe is survived by sister-in-law Ethel Atinksy, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Shirley (nee Cohn), in 2010.
More than 650 people attended his funeral on June 10 at Congregation Sinai, with Rabbi David Cohen officiating. Burial was in Second Home Cemetery.
The family would appreciate memorial contributions to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Joe Aaron Scholarship Fund, 3271 N. Lake Dr., Milwaukee, WI, 53211.
Rebecca Levine is a freelance writer living in Menomonee Falls.
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