- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEarl LaVon Freeman
- Nicknames
- The Great Vonski
- Vonski
- Von Freeman was born on October 3, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was married to Ruby Hayes. He died on August 11, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Spouses? (divorced, 2 children)Ruby Hayes (divorced, 4 children)
- In 1972, Freeman cut his first record as band-leader, "Doin' It Right Now.".
- Hard bop tenor saxophonist.
- Father of jazz saxophonist Chico Freeman.
- His mother played the guitar, and his policeman father was an amateur jazz trombonist who brought jazz musicians home from the club where he moonlighted as a bouncer.
- After 7-year-old Von pulled the arm off the family Victrola, bored holes in it and turned it into a crude horn, his father bought him a saxophone.
- I'm not trying to brag or nothing but I always knew I could play, 50, 60 years ago. I really don't play any different than the way I played then. And I never let it worry me that I didn't get anywhere fame wise, or I didn't make hit records.
- Don't tune up too much, baby. You'll lose your soul.
- [on his father's reaction to his music] He picked me up, just kind of shook me, then hardly spoke to me for about a year.
- A lot of people who didn't pay a lot of attention to me or to my music started coming around when I was heading to my 80th birthday. Now, they were saying. Well, Vonski, you're all right after all.
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