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Well I guess I got tagged to step into the ring here...But even then I think I might struggling picking any of the more recent players from those, given that the whole jazz education system has been heavily weighted in favour of imitating those players and music of the 50s and 60s. (Cue @Wade Cornell 🙂 )
Teaching - Teaching saxophone: too much jazz of the 50s?
I was going to put this in the current thread Help with the next step please, but this somehow grew into something that should have its own thread I think. This is one of those things that crop up from time to time in various discussions My take is that it is now inevitable that mainstream or...cafesaxophone.com
Pete and I have similar views (not identical) regarding saxophone education and how institutionalization has led many new players on a path towards imitating greats from the past and attempted to codify improvisation. Getting a good grade or approval has meant conforming rather than developing your individuality.
It's certainly necessary to teach basics and possibly even more important to develop a very general musical education that includes many genres However if players are channeled into a narrow time slot of music of one genre, then their audience and opportunities may be extremely limited. It's said we are what we eat. Similarly we become what we play/practice.
I like to think in terms of "integrity" , which is similar to sincerity, yet means that the player is themselves and expresses their own feelings/emotions in a way that communicates to others. If you're a copyist or tribute player, you can be sincere in trying to play in the mode/mold of the style/artist you're copying, but may not have anything you're saying that's from you or (unfortunately) worth listening to. We have lots of recordings of the original players... why aim to be a lesser tribute player?
If this is primarily about improvisation, then you certainly need to have a good musical library in your head of all sorts of other stuff. More importantly, what (IMHO) one should be playing needs to be more than a cut and paste regurgitation of well practiced riffs and arpeggios that just fit the changes. Even worse is only having the intention of trying to impress a listener via the speed of that regurgitation.
Our instrument can sing, and is the closest to the human voice. When your improvisation is you singing through your horn then it is your voice and (hopefully) embodies integrity... which would also be sincere.
