Rock and Roll

[jeremyjuicewah]

Was listening to rock and roll on a cd from a charity shop called Shake Rattle and Roll. Some greats on it. Was struck by how much sax was in those fifties and early sixties numbers. Also how simple the core of the music is. So I thought, I can do that. So I did. Learned lots recording this:

1. Let all the instruments have their say. No need to play all the stuff all the time.

2. Must learn to keep the air flow steady. Volume and sound vary all over the place else.

3. Bit of a blow, thought timing was instinctive. Obviously not. Sax starts and finishes at the beginning and end of the phrases but runs away a bit in the middle of them, sometimes.

4. The high F in the last bit should probably have been F#. Immaterial really since I can only hit about 1 ten of them straight off, though running up is easier.

5. In this I'm having to work too hard. Been a problem with all my mouthpieces. Johnboy has vouchsafed the secret of easy reeds to me so next time it'll be better. Would love to share, but would have to kill you.

6. Lastly, I think the tenor is better suited to rock and roll. But I havent got one.

 

[John Laughter]

jeremy, rock & roll is fun and an exciting style of music! It can be rewarding both paywise and travelwise. Join a band and play for private parties, nighclubs and wedding receptions.

The 50's and 60's featured the sax a lot as did the Big Band era. So many styles and different tones and ideas.

See how many of the following "original songs" you can locate on Youtube and listen to the solos;
http://cafesaxophone.com/content.php?208-History-Top-40-Saxophone-Solos

Here is some additional info that night be of interest;
http://www.saxontheweb.net/Rock_n_Roll/

In addition to jazz and blues, Pete Thomas and many of the players on this website are super rock & rollers and will be glad to help you with questions and will give you more info on the famous past and present rockers.

Good luck and welcome to the club!

 

[jeremyjuicewah]

Thanks John. I have read a some of the stuff on saxontheweb. As usual, the thing that seemed easy is looking a bit more difficult. I have tried soloing over the tracks and must admit it did not sound good. I will persevere with this as it is good fun and gets you comfortable in a key and helps in finding what extra notes can be fitted in. I reckon I am a while off being to performance standard but thats the aim.
All the best and congrats on that mamoth compendium of unknown sax heroes.
Mike

 

[John Laughter]

Thanks Mike. Keep at it and you will be there!

 

[thomsax]

Mike,

I like it! The energy you have is fundamental for Rock & Roll Saxophone.

I guess John Laughter doesn’t want to recommend his own books, ”Rock & Roll Saxophone” and ”Contemporary Saxophone”. I use to recommend these books to all saxplayers who wants to play Rocksax. You can read and listen to rocksaxeffects, players …. . The books comes with CD’s. But there are other sources as well. ”Taiming The Saxophone”, SOTW, Andrew Clarks Masterclasses …. .

There are tons of good samples of Rocksax (blues, R&B, Rock ’n’ Roll, funk, soul, reggae) songs.

I learned to play Rocksax by listening to music that I liked. There were more or less saxes on the recordings. Besides Springsteen/Clarence Clemons, Credence Clearwater Rival/John Fogerty, Bill Black’s Combo/Martin Willis or Ace Cannon and Johnny and the Hurricanes/Johnny Paris were bands/saxplayers that I listen(ed) to and tried to play. No too complicate music. But you often have to play in the keys of concert A, D and E which can be a little bit tricky. You get used to it.

Talking about Bill Black’s combo here are two songs from 1972. Steady beat and meduim tempo. We are doing songs like this at our Rockmeetings. I don’t know who is blowing sax on the recordings. The songs ”Daylite” and ”Four A.M”. are from a promo single. I don’t think I’m breaking any laws by sharing them on my photobucket site? They were ment to be played and listended to!

http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/thomsax/?action=view&current=Daylie.mp4

http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/thomsax/?action=view&current=Fouram.mp4

Feel free to contact me at thomsax************ if you want some information or whatever you may need.

Thomas

 

[kevgermany]

Keep at it Mike, you're getting there! Brilliant drummer! Very accurate.

 

[John Laughter]

I guess John Laughter doesn’t want to recommend his own books

Thanks for the plug Thomas! The Contemporary book/CD is out of print but does show up on Ebay once in a while. R&R Sax is still going strong. I am glad that it is still helping those who enjoy this style.

Hope you are doing good Thomas and giging a lot!

 

[jeremyjuicewah]

Thank you Thomas. Both those are great examples of keeping it simple. That´s good stuff for a model. All the best


Cheers Kev. The drummer is a drunk but we caught him early in the day.

Best wishes
Mike

 

[Taz]

Mike, I've got a few backing tracks to some great traditional rock 'n' roll tunes. If you pm me your email I'll send them to you. I don't have the dots as they are useless to me, but I'm sure you'll figure something out.

 

[Jules]

The book-"Blues Saxophone- An in Depth look at the Styles of the Masters" While not being strictly Rock & Roll, is close enough glean loads of good stuff from. The 'secret' of good rock and roll sax (In my opinion)- good, strong tone and rhythmic drive.... distilled to its utmost perfection in Rudi Pompeli's one note solo in Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley......

 

[jeremyjuicewah]

Hi Jules. I have just been checking out Rudy on youtube. Masterfull. Also checked out Lee Allen on Walking with Lee. Makes you shiver.

 

[Taz]

He's a great track Rudy's Rock.

 

[johnboy]

Easy Peasy, I know it so well - I can sing every note

John;}

 

[AndyB]

I discovered that there is a great collection called Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 that has lots of good old R&B tunes with cool horn parts to play along with if anyone else is into that. I count about 60 tracks that have cool horn parts to play along with.

 

[jeremyjuicewah]

I just read The Music Matters on google, an analysis of early rock and roll by Joe Burns. Lots of stats. I wanted to find the most common keys. Of 100 songs from 1955 to 1959 the most popular were A and E, Ab and F# nowhere to be seen. Nice quote from Robert Christgau analysing Chuck Berry: Repetition without teium is the backbone of rock and roll. Quite right too.

 

[kevgermany]

I just read The Music Matters on google, an analysis of early rock and roll by Joe Burns. Lots of stats. I wanted to find the most common keys. Of 100 songs from 1955 to 1959 the most popular were A and E, Ab and F# nowhere to be seen. Nice quote from Robert Christgau analysing Chuck Berry: Repetition without teium is the backbone of rock and roll. Quite right too.

On tenor if they're in A, you're in B, and if they're in E, you're in F#...

 

[johnboy]

Works well for tenor;}

John.

 

[thomsax]

Chordtones in A&E for tenor and alto/bari. It's from a Bluessax Workout in A & E. Andrew Clark did the workshop and workout CD with pattern, licks and backing tracks.

View attachment 909View attachment 908

 

[thomsax]

Thanks for the plug Thomas! The Contemporary book/CD is out of print but does show up on Ebay once in a while. R&R Sax is still going strong. I am glad that it is still helping those who enjoy this style.

Hope you are doing good Thomas and giging a lot!

I didn't knew that Centerstream Publ is not offering the book. Are you going to re-work the "Contemporary Saxophone" book? Too bad.

I trying to play as much sax as I can. We are still doing our Rocsax Workshops and when Andrew Clark is not here we are running our own Rock-Blues Sax Project. I hope I can take him over again in September, if I can get enough participators to the workshops and some gigs.

Thomas

 

[John Laughter]

Hey Thomas, Centerstream is the publisher but the book was printed and distributed by Hal Leonard. When sales of a given book (Contemporary Saxophone) does not meet a certain number per year Hal Leonard will not continue to make copies because they have to make so many at one time on the press. There are many books on the market about improvisation so one has to have a book that appeals to many people so that sales and profits continue. Fortunately the R&R book keeps selling : )

In 1999 I started the "The History of Top 40 Saxophone Solos-1955-2011" and have been working on it with updates and sell the CD. It is around 450 pages to date with photos, bios, history and we sell the CD book with a 2nd CD that has 17 tracks of music that was donated to the project.

"The History of Top 40 Saxophone Solos-1955-2011" will unlikely be published because we continue to edit and update the information surrounding the songs and the saxophone players.

Pete was kind enough to post the list of songs that are in the CD book on this web site;

http://cafesaxophone.com/content.php?208-History-Top-40-Saxophone-Solos

If anyone would like more info about the CD book set just send an email to JSAXL********
Thanks
John