King Perkoff

Ben ‘King’ Perkoff, who was born in Santa Monica, California, started to play the saxophone when he was 16 years old. He loved the sound of the sax in rock and jazz and admired artists like King Curtis, Junior Walker and Bobby Keys. It was the latter’s solo on “Can’t Hear Me Knockin’” from the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album “Sticky Fingers” that made Ben pick up the tenor sax.
Ben also admired jazz greats like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane but his strongest influence was (and is) the blues and rhythm & blues, especially King Curtis. Ben got his stage name King Perkoff when he was playing a solo at River City in Fairfax with Big Mama Thornton. Someone in the audience yelled out KING PERKOFF and the name stuck.