Jack Sels

Jean-Jacques (Jack) Sels (29 January 1922 – 21 March 1970) was a Belgian jazz saxophonist, arranger, and composer. Jack Sels started collecting jazz records as teenager growing up in Antwerp. A substantial inheritance from his father allowed Sels to amass a 10,000-record collection, but a bombing during Second World War destroyed it. He studied piano and then taught himself how to play the tenor saxophone. To earn a living, he worked in an ice cream parlour in the Antwerp Hoogstraat (High Street). He spent much time listening to his jazz idols, including tenor saxophonist Lester Young, trumpeters Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. After the Second World War many American and Canadian soldiers arrived in the port of Antwerp and Jack Sels loved to talk to them and listen to the new records they brought with them from the United States, helping him to further expand his record collection.

The arrival of Dizzy Gillespie's big band at Antwerp in 1948 made an impression on Jack Sels which lead to the founding of his own big band and the composing of music that they would perform. The band made an impressive debut with some of the best musicians of that time. On trumpet: Paul Heyndrickx, Charlie Knegtel, Theo Mertens, Herman and Nick Sandy Fissette; on trombone: Nat Peck, Frans Van Dijk, Jan Mertens and Christian Kellens; on Sax: Jay Cameron, Marcel Peeters, Gene Verstrepen, Bobby Jaspar and Roger Asselberghs plus Jean Warland on bass, Francis Coppieters on piano, John Ward on drums, Rudy Frankel on conga and Vilez Bill on bongo drum. However, because of financial and other problems, it was hard for him to hold such a big band together. In 1951, he formed a smaller band with 15 musicians, modelled after his idol Miles Davis, and later a still smaller group with which he toured in Germany. Back in Belgium, in 1954, he recorded six tracks in boogy style for Ronnex Records and performed on stage with Nat King Cole.

In 1955 he composed the soundtrack for the movie Meeuwen Sterven in de Haven (Seagulls Die in the Harbour) by Roland Verhavert. From 1958 on, he worked on radio programs for the NIR, the later BRT radio, and on behalf of the Adult Education department of the Ministry of Culture, he toured through Flanders to promote jazz music. In 1958 he played with his group at the World Exhibition in Brussels.

Although Jack Sels played with jazz legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Lou Bennett and Kenny Clarke, his fame did not spread worldwide because of his choice to stay in Antwerp. The last three years of his life his health declined, making it very difficult for him to play. He suffered a heart attack in his Antwerp home and died on 21 March 1970.