Thomas ‘Beans’ Bowles; Motown Musician

Thomas “Beans” Bowles, 73, who played the saxophone and flute on several Motown hits by such artists as Marvin Gaye and the Supremes. The tall, bony baritone sax player left his native South Bend, Ind., for Detroit in 1944 to attend Wayne State University. Shortly afterward, he dropped out to play with a U.S. Navy band nationally and internationally and later worked in a number of Detroit jazz bars, playing with Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine, among others. Bowles won a management job at Motown and has been credited as “an unsung hero of its success.” It was he who suggested that Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. put all his young artists on a bus to tour as the Motown Revue. Working with Gordy’s sister, Ester Gordy Edwards, Bowles organized the tour. And it was Bowles, the seasoned veteran, who conducted bed checks for the underage female singers and lectured the whole group on how to behave on the road, particularly in the South during the volatile 1960s civil rights era. Bowles composed the harmonica solo for Stevie Wonder’s first hit, “Fingertips Part I” and arranged his “Fingertips Part II.” The versatile musician also played the flute solos on Gaye’s “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” and “What’s Goin’ On,” and played saxophone for the Supremes’ hit “Baby Love” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave.” On Friday in Detroit of prostate cancer.