American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and flautist, whose debut album, A Man and His Horns, was released in 1956.
Ortega began to play the saxophone at age 14 and studied the instrument under Lloyd Reese. He played in 1947 with Earle Spencer, but from 1948 to 1951 he served in the U.S. Army. Following this he became a member of Lionel Hampton’s group, which toured Europe; while there he also recorded with Gigi Gryce, Art Farmer, and Milt Buckner, as well as with Norwegian players while in Oslo in 1954. He also met his future wife, pianist and vibraphonist Mona Ørbeck, at the Penguin jazz club in Oslo; they married later that year. Upon his return to southern California he put a band together and worked briefly in Los Angeles, but relocated to New York City in 1955, playing with Nat Pierce for two years. In 1958 he came back once again to Los Angeles, where he worked with Paul Bley, Claude Williamson, and the Lighthouse All Stars.
In the 1960s he played mostly in the Southwest and California, and worked on film soundtracks such as The Pawnbroker. He worked with Don Ellis and Gerald Wilson in 1965 and with Lalo Schifrin in 1968. In the early 1970s he toured internationally with Quincy Jones and continued working with Wilson into the 1980s. He toured and recorded in Paris several times in the 1990s. As of October 2021, he was still performing actively at Mr. Peabody’s in Encinitas, California. He died on 30 October 2022 at age 94 in Encinitas.
Link to Wikipedia biography