Great Players Recommendation beginners' listening, famous, infamous and also more obscure.

[Alex]

Zoot Sims, Larry McKenna, Charles McPherson, Joe Lovano, Doug Webb.
(Although these musicians don't seem to be noticed in the scandals).

 

[Jeanette]

No harm, no but it depends on their style, honestly.

We can say with certainty Eric Dolphy and Ornette and Parker and Coltrane and Jackie McClean were all great....

...but in the context posited in the OP....would those really be apt suggestions for someone just getting into playing sax who isn't really a jazz listener already ?

I might argue that those suggestions would actually be counter-productive if the goal was to help a beginner out with an appropriate listening list. They are doing too much for a relative neophyte to grasp, and I think the result might be intimidation and some confusion rather than inspiration, is all.

I guess it depends on the individual 😀 I wasn't a jazz listener until I started learning sax. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Coltrane.

I don't think you have to grasp what they are doing. If you don't like the style then don't listen but if you do, enjoy. I don't analyse what Coltrane is doing just enjoy the listening experience.

Everybody's journey and reasons for playing are different. I hope as adults we can recognise if something is helpful or counterproductive.

Keep an open mind as a beginner it might not be helpful as @JayeNM points out but 5 years down the line it may.

Jx

 

[Nick Wyver]

Some not jazz players:

Marcel Mule
Jean-Marie Londeix
John Harle
Eugene Rousseau
Sigurd Rascher
Jess Gillam
Amy Dickson
Gerard McChrystal

 

[Pete Thomas]

We can say with certainty Eric Dolphy and Ornette and Parker and Coltrane and Jackie McClean were all great....

...but in the context posited in the OP....would those really be apt suggestions for someone just getting into playing sax who isn't really a jazz listener already ?

I guess it depends on the individual 😀 I wasn't a jazz listener until I started learning sax. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Coltrane.

I don't think you have to grasp what they are doing. If you don't like the style then don't listen but if you do, enjoy. I don't analyse what Coltrane is doing just enjoy the listening experience.

Both very valid arguments

I left it open in the OP partly because it could be relevantly argued either way.

With no “trained jazz ear” I’d argue that most modern(ish) jazz since bebop can sound like a jumble of noise to people.

To some people it may put them off saxophone, to others it may encourage them and I make no judgments here. There’s nothing that makes someone superior because they appreciate the more abstract (for want of a better word) jazz.

There’s also a sort of middle path of those who start off with more “early listening” jazz and then before you know it they're groving to Alber Ayler:

View: https://youtu.be/xWsIG5sNq1Q?si=rQ_vmmfGqQ0OJy8n&t=411


This "easy listening portal is why I mentioned Charlie Ventura's Bop for the People, but we could also cite Kenny G or Stan Getz's Girl from Ipanema as a way in.

 

[Jeanette]

This "easy listening portal is why I mentioned Charlie Ventura's Bop for the People, but we could also cite Kenny G or Stan Getz's Girl from Ipanema as a way in.

Kenny g was recommended to me by my first sax tutor, probably because I played sop. 😁 And I enjoyed listening to him!

Jx

 

[mizmar]

So, if "beginner" really means; someone who has just taken up the instrument.
Then, I reckon, you want to get your target into the ears, so it's useful to listen to people producing a nice, clear tone... Irrespective of genre. Not to fast, few decorations, effects (growling) etc.

For example, I guess

Kenny g was recommended to me by my first sax tutor, probably because I played sop. 😁

Over and above a good range of styles and genres, good clear examples of whatever a body is working on to load up the ears

 

[Pete Thomas]

So, if "beginner" really means; someone who has just taken up the instrument.

Yes, I was mostly thinking of someone either just beginning or about to begin. Listening that would inspire them on their journey and demonstrate the very broad range of how the saxophone fits into the whole area of music.

 

[thomsax]

Two great Rock &Roll Saxophonists. Country beat/feeling and the tenor saxophone is great.

King Curtis - "Raunchy"

View: https://youtu.be/GTerYwzpk88?si=CvHmjO-RL2zIaiqi


Duane Eddy - Steve Douglas tenor sax.

View: https://youtu.be/_FqDJLZtnzk?si=JGQ6W8coMWuP4yr8


Both King Curtis and Steve Douglas are good samples of the thing we use to call "Rock & Roll Saxophone".

 

[thomsax]

So, if "beginner" really means; someone who has just taken up the instrument.
Then, I reckon, you want to get your target into the ears, so it's useful to listen to people producing a nice, clear tone... Irrespective of genre. Not to fast, few decorations, effects (growling) etc.

For example, I guess


Over and above a good range of styles and genres, good clear examples of whatever a body is working on to load up the ears

I played in concert B on alto and some years later on tenor. Why, because the music I heard was in concert B. It's 55 years ago and I'm still honking. A slow and long project. My friends gave up the sax after some years. What did I do wrong?

 

[Alex]

With no “trained jazz ear” I’d argue that most modern(ish) jazz since bebop can sound like a jumble of noise to people.

Although I'm a follower of the mainstream and bebop, I like this guy (Albert Ayler) For some reason, he doesn't annoy me.

 

[Keshr]

I should have included Pete on my list, as one of the first non 78 rpm based songs I messed with was “Stick It To ‘Em” from Mr Lucky.

 

[JayeNM]

I agree completely. Two of the most successful saxophonists in the world, and one was only mentioned here once, and the other not at all. I speak of course of

Grover Washington Jr.
Kenny G.

Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright also need some love, they have quite a following and both are extremely skilled technically.

Love him or hate him, Mr. Gorelik is probably the greatest inspiration to aspiring sax players since the 90's. Jazzers love to trash him, and some reasons are valid, I mean I seriously dislike smooth jazz, myself...but the reality is he did give the horn more mainstream exposure than, arguably, any other player.
(I will also point out that he IS a pretty damn good player....but you gotta go back to his work with Jeff Lorber Fusion to start hearing how tasty he was).

Yet those were the same players that encouraged me to be better when I was 12.

Fair enough, I would posit you were more sophisticated than most starting players/listeners are today...

I remember when I was 13 or 14 there was a big article in the NY Times on Dolphy...the reviewer was just gushing about how important a figure he was and how overlooked he was, how he never got his due, how he should be as household a jazz name as Trane or Dexter or Sonny. I was already collecting classic Jazz Fusion albums of the time....Herbie, Crusaders, Weather Report, Grover, etc....so my ear was developing for sure.....
So, I went out and bought a couple of albums, one of his.... and Blues and the Abstract truth.....and I literally couldn't get thru his album.

...and as for Oliver Nelson's album....it made me LOVE Oliver Nelson..... and left me completely befuddled as to what Dolphy was doing, I found his approach an assault to my ears actually. I found no beauty in it...whereas there was great beauty in, say, Paul Desmond's sound and phrasing.

Ten years later, greater exposure to jazz and a good 70+ visits to NY jazz clubs.... I began to get it, but....as a starter suggestion ?
It was a bad place to go.

As for 'Trane it depends....suggest to someone the recordings of him with the classic Miles "in" albums (Working, Relaxin', etc) and his playing was more acessible...but I would not recommend starting a person who was neither a jazzlistener nor jazz player on his quartet stuff, honestly.

It keeps going down the line. Trumpet ? People will jump to Miles.
I would better suggest Freddie or Lee Morgan or Woody Shaw, players who have a bit more soul/blues inflection to their playing AND their compositions....which again becomes something a bit more audibly familiar.
I'd honestly suggest Satchmo before I'd suggest MIles.

Piano ? People jump to Monk.
I say "suggest that if you wanna literally alienate a young pianist from Jazz".
Again the likes of Ramsey Lewis or Horace Silver are much better suggestions, for the same reasons I stated above. More bluesy/gospel/latin inflections will be more common ground to non jazzers. More of a 'hook' than giving a newbie the task of trying to decipher what Monk was doing.

 

[JayeNM]

I don't think you have to grasp what they are doing. If you don't like the style then don't listen but if you do, enjoy. I don't analyse what Coltrane is doing just enjoy the listening experience.

Perhaps my semantics weren't well-chosen. When I write 'graspable" I am particularly referring to the musical compositions themselves.

No newbie would be remotely capable to 'gasp' nor 'analyze' what many of the greats were doing.

BUT...again coming from my interpretation that at best the newbie is coming from a place of a generalized ear for pop and more mainstream music....

I think it best, - if one is being objective and not simply giving them a list of your personal FAVORITES - to start them on recordings which are going to have some commonality in structure and general feel/vibe/sound...to more commonly listened to contemporary genres....

If that makes sense....

 

[JayeNM]

One more I'd like to throw in as a nice suggestion for a newbie....

Some of the albums by ABDULLAH IBRAHIM (Dollar Brand) which have sax/horn heavy compositions....they are pretty melodically/harmonically simple yet their connection to African roots is unmistakable.

View: https://youtu.be/OslM-TzYbTk?si=69Y316wtOaVnw38j

View: https://youtu.be/ZYkTFUGRHCo?si=DwHqF5CWEQfEwQB2

 

[Grumps]

Back when I was young, it was this cued solo by the late Chris Vadala that inspired me to do more with my horn. That he was a local educator, I did not know back then. I just knew this was my favorite album:

 

[taiwanpaul]

Kenny g was recommended to me by my first sax tutor, probably because I played sop. 😁 And I enjoyed listening to him!

Jx

I remember having Kenny G's first LP and he played a lot of tenor on that. A funkier groove, despite the title trak being Songbird.

 

[Alex]

Piano ? People jump to Monk.

Bill Evans (William John Evans) always comes to mind when I hear the word "jazz pianist." I really love its unique sound and touch.

 

[skeller047]

To bring people into the jazz realm, you have to show them beauty. The current average listener is so used to the musical equivalent of cream of wheat and cola, that giving them a full on 7-course haute cuisine French meal will just overwhelm them. True for jazz AND classical. Trane? Bird? Bartok? Stravinsky?

Better start with a good gourmet burger and some perfectly done shoestring potatoes. I.E., Grover Washington or Wes Montgomery. Or maybe some Mozart with a little well-tempered Bach on the side. You have to draw them in.

 

[Alex]

Трэйн? Берд? Барток? Стравинский?

a little bit of everything

 

[arbin]

Fair enough, I would posit you were more sophisticated than most starting players/listeners are today...

No, I was no more sophisticated than anyone else. I was fortunate to have a group of older friends of my brother’s to guide me. My teacher was awesome and played a bit with Bird. 50% of my lessons were discussing great players and why they were exceptional. So I simply had a great indoctrination. I was never the best player on the stand, but I knew why.