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Playing solo, add vibrato, or not, as your taste and inclination dictate. When playing with other horns, whoever is playing lead gets to dictate. So if you aren’t the lead voice, follow whoever is.
Glenn Miller’s sax section was famous for their matched vibrato style, generally at the rate of a 16th note. There are certainly definite styles of vibrato; it only became more individual (and varied) in jazz music with the rise of small band music, where unique self-expression was a prized attribute. Early be-boppers were certainly trained in the use of vibrato in a section, since so many got their start in big bands. Players of later generations are more individual.
As students of music, it behooves us to learn the common ways that vibrato was used by various players in various eras. As individual players, whether playing a set melody or improvising, applying vibrato in a way that suits the genre we are playing only enhances the performance. “Tacky” then becomes a matter of taste, and perhaps a judgement of whether a particular vibrato is appropriate in a particular context.
All that said, I stand by my original answer to the OP’s question of whether vibrato is tacky - namely, “no”.
Glenn Miller’s sax section was famous for their matched vibrato style, generally at the rate of a 16th note. There are certainly definite styles of vibrato; it only became more individual (and varied) in jazz music with the rise of small band music, where unique self-expression was a prized attribute. Early be-boppers were certainly trained in the use of vibrato in a section, since so many got their start in big bands. Players of later generations are more individual.
As students of music, it behooves us to learn the common ways that vibrato was used by various players in various eras. As individual players, whether playing a set melody or improvising, applying vibrato in a way that suits the genre we are playing only enhances the performance. “Tacky” then becomes a matter of taste, and perhaps a judgement of whether a particular vibrato is appropriate in a particular context.
All that said, I stand by my original answer to the OP’s question of whether vibrato is tacky - namely, “no”.
