A.K. Salim
Born Albert Atkinson in Chicago, Illinois, on July 28, 1922, Ahmad Kharab Salim attended DuSable High School with Bennie Green, Dorothy Donegan and Gene Ammons and played alto saxophone in King Kolax's band from 1938 to 1939 before working with Jimmy Raschel and Tiny Bradshaw. He stopped playing after a jaw injury in 1943 and arranged music for the big bands of Lucky Millinder, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Lunceford, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie who recorded his composition "Normania" in 1949, and recorded it again in 1952 as "Blee Blop Blues".
Salim left music for a career in real estate from 1949 to 1956 but returned to write and arrange Latin jazz for Tito Puente, Machito, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Herbie Mann and others. Salim released three albums under his leadership on Savoy Records in the late 1950s and recorded a further album for Prestige Records in 1964.
