Who got you started?

[Pjonah]

At the tender age of 11 my sister managed to sneek me into a Roxy Music concert, Andy Mackay made sounds with his array of saxes and oboe that even today are ground breaking. He was probably, along with Dick Parry (Pink Floyd), the most influential and hence the reason this muppet took up the bendy horn.

Since then my heroes have been Paul Desmond, Ben Webster, Tex Beneke, Mike Burney/Nick Pentelow (Wizzard) to name a few.

I guess we would all like to think that we were inspired to take up the instrument by some sax legend, but the reality is Andy Mackay did it for me and in all honesty he wasn't that hot, which probably explains why I'm not either! 🙁

Jeeks.....how could I forget Gerry Mulligan.

 

[Saxlicker]

I find it embarrassing but although there was no single influence... some comercial 70's sax and then 80's pop and a mars bar advert made me take the plunge.
(I can feel the more serious jazz musicians shuddering)

I guess its a tribute to the versatility to the sax if nothing else!

This link kinda typifies....
http://bandit.pc.cs.cmu.edu/sax/
I still disagree with the author on the whole, to me these solos by enlarge are no more inapppropriate than any other attempt to shape a tune.
The real question I suppose is..did they appeal? and have they stood the test of time?

EDIT>>>>
Forgot to say, Once you got into the sax, it really opened your mind about musical genres didn't it?

 

[Bobby G]

I suppose the seeds were planted in the early 70's, although it took until about 3 years ago to percolate through and for me to actually buy a saxophone. Previously I'd been, for many years, a strings'n'frets man, mainly bass guitar, in various groups, but I'd always liked saxophones. Saxophonists who I liked in my teens (I was a right hippy, too) were Andy Mackay with Roxy, who I saw only the once, as support act to a fast-fading Pretty Things at a very small venue in Potters Bar, Dave Jackson with Van Der Graaf, Mel Collins with King Crimson (never saw him with KC but I loved his playing), Keith Gemmell with Audience and Ruan O'Lochlainn who played alto, guitar and piano with pub-rock band Bees Make Honey. I also always liked the horn sections on old soul records.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Jules]

As a product of the New Wave era, I'd have to say the first few sax related pieces of music that sank into my conciousness were probably from The Boomtown Rats & Madness (plus stuff like The Beat and Pigbag). After that when I got into going to gigs there was Anton ThistleThwaite from the Waterboys, the guy from The Psychadelic Furs and Dick Hextall Smith (who cropped up in all kinds of incongruous billings in Leeds in the early 1980s).
Then there were a fair few odd 'not quite jazz' jazz outfits around the scene- "Zero Slingsby and the Works", "Bluurt" not forgetting a very young "Snake Davies and his Alligator Shoes" (house band at the Faversham pub in Leeds 6.... ah, memories of a mis-spent youth!).

 

[Linky Lee]

I was listening to lots of Miles Davis and similar stuff and knew that the saxophone was the instrument that I was moving towards, I'd been moving away from my flute for several years.

So since Charlie Parker was the saxophonist on the majority of the songs I liked, you could say he did, but as you may know I'm not a huge Charlie fan. I've moved towards tenor being my favorite sax for that smooth sleazy 80's sax sound and raucous modern stuff like Madness and Floyd.

I don't think anyone in particular got me into the sax. I pretty much decided that I wanted to learn how to play sax because it sounded cool and for me jazz was starting to become my favorite style of music and as I knew loads of trumpet players and had blown one before I knew I prefered sax to trumpet, though I do like trumpet.

 

[jonf]

For me, it's not so much a who but a what. From the age of 11 I'd been playing clarinet, and frankly was getting bloody bored with Mozart, Bach and that sort of stuff. I really liked playing, and knew I wanted to continue, but just didn't find the music available for clarinet appealing. Then, out of the blue, the school I was at got a couple of battered old tenors when I was 16, and they asked me if I wanted one. I jumped at the chance, and was getting a tune out in half an hour. The next year my dad bought me a Buescher and a Lawton mouthpiece and I was really hooked, as I started to get a sound I liked. Then off to University in London, supplementing my grant (remember them?) playing gigs all over the place. Never looked back. I still love playing after 25 years.

 

[Pjonah]

JonF wrote:
For me, it's not so much a who but a what. From the age of 11 I'd been playing clarinet, and frankly was getting bloody bored with Mozart, Bach and that sort of stuff. I really liked playing, and knew I wanted to continue, but just didn't find the music available for clarinet appealing. Then, out of the blue, the school I was at got a couple of battered old tenors when I was 16, and they asked me if I wanted one. I jumped at the chance, and was getting a tune out in half an hour. The next year my dad bought me a Buescher and a Lawton mouthpiece and I was really hooked, as I started to get a sound I liked. Then off to University in London, supplementing my grant (remember them?) playing gigs all over the place. Never looked back. I still love playing after 25 years.

Thats just the dilema facing my son right now, he playing clarinet in the school orchestra etc etc. but he is largely bored with the music. He has asked if he can switch to sax, but my concern is that he will drop clarinet completely.

Unquestionably the sax, any sax for that matter, is more rock and roll than a clarinet, but it is quite a handy thing to be good at and for busking, carting a small case as opposed to a tenor sax around is no fun (I've done both) I'll take the clarinet any day.

Hey ho! :S

 

[Bobby G]

Pjonah, I'd say if your son is bored with clarinet, let him loose on a sax. I went through the same thing at about age 12-13 when I moved from making half-hearted attempts at playing pop songs on the piano, having half-heartedly convinced my teacher to let me stray from the classical repertoire once in a while to getting, and immediately falling in love with my first guitar, since which time my musical journey has lasted nearly 40 years, so farand has allowed me to find, or continue discovering, my own musical personality. (What a long sentence)

Nachoman, you old new-waver, I was also on the cusp of being a hippy, then a punky type, so after the people I mentioned before (and also Tim and Geoff fom Henry Cowand assorted Soft Machinists) I discovered the raw sounds of post-punk-new-white-funk geezers like Pigbag, and more especially the marvellous Rip Rig & Panic. It was also round about t is time that I was playing in a band with a real sax-player and got introduced to the 4 M's - Miles, Mingus, Monk and Many Others. And Mulligan.... the 5 M's..

Cheers, Bob

 

[Lisa]

Thanks for the link to that sax solos site Pete, those are definately the tunes that got me going, and the guy has given my faves the lowest marks! (Her name is Rio and she dances on the saaaand!)

I guess if you love it then what's to be ashamed of, eh?!

L

 

[Saxlicker]

Lisa wrote:
Thanks for the link to that sax solos site Pete, those are definately the tunes that got me going, and the guy has given my faves the lowest marks! (Her name is Rio and she dances on the saaaand!)

I guess if you love it then what's to be ashamed of, eh?!

L

😱 .. When did I change my name? 😛
Anyway Lisa you're welcome and remember....The verdict on those is only one Guy's opinion. Judging by the rest of his site he has little constructive to say about anything. He'll probably pick on Jnr walker next 😉

 

[jersey_mike]

In my misguided youth my opinion was that horns , especially horn sections, ruined the song. To my young mind the rise of bands like Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears (ok, I'm dating myself) were ruining rock music !!!!!!!!!!!!! Jazz was completely out of the question at the time. Slowly but surely I noticed saxophone in some of the songs I liked by the Stones, Floyd, Golden Earring (they were my favorite band in the late 70's), and some others. What totally turned me around was Jungleland, and when I decided to buy an instrument as a lark after getting divorced it had to be a tenor sax.

 

[Bobby G]

We had our own jazz- or brass-rock, as it was called, in the UK about the same time, or just after Chicago and BS&T came out (I always really loved the blaring horns on 25 or 6 to 4), spearheaded by bands like If (who?) and Alan Bown, previously the Alan Bown Set (a mod/northern soul band), both of which specialised in the uplifting sound of a blaring horn section, the like of which wasn't heard in pop music again for another decade when Dexy's MkI emerged. FWIW, I still think 'Jungleland' is Bruce's finest.

Cheers, Bob

 

[redmancba]

For me (on the guitar) it was, embarassingly, the pop-punk rev. of the late 90's. I went from that to metal, to blues, to jazz, to classical, and now to sort of world/new classical stuff. I would love to get back into some jazz stuff. I love the mixing of classical with jazz and all that stuff.

 

[disco_volante]

I got started on my guitar because of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. Not cos i grew up in the 50s but I was into Rock n Roll and rockabilly when I was in my teens. I then moved on to Hendrix, Clapton, Cray etc. Then it was Vai, Satriani and that lot. I'm now into George Benson, Grant Green and stuff like that. I'm definately heading back towards the blues as well.

 

[frank_johnson]

Guitarwise it was Big Bill Broonzy & T-Bone Walker.moving on to Johnn Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac, when they were a Blues band, Cream etc., etc.
My first sax hero was Ernie Watts, who played sax with the Bluesbreakers and was heavily influenced by JC and Miles.
BTW, my Avatar belongs to John Mayall ! 8)

 

[Bobby G]

Fleetwood Mac, when they were a blues band. That'll be when my Uncle Peter played with them, then. Marvellous group, even (especially) when they went all scary doing tunes like Green Manalishi. Does anyone know what is a manalishi?

Cheers, Bob

 

[Pjonah]

Bobby G wrote:
Fleetwood Mac, when they were a blues band. That'll be when my Uncle Peter played with them, then. Marvellous group, even (especially) when they went all scary doing tunes like Green Manalishi. Does anyone know what is a manalishi?

Cheers, Bob

Would that be around the Albatros period, I only really got into Mac around The Rumours time, which still remains one of my favorite albums, no saxes though.

Guitar greats for me were the likes of Hendrix, Ronny Wood, Phil Manzanera, Clapton, Gilmore etc.

I too am embarassed to admit that bands like Wizzard and the Glitter band played a huge part in my love for the saxophone. Whilst with the exception of Nick Penthorn and Mike Burney, non of the aforementioned sax players could have been classed as peculiarly talented, certainly not the Glitter Band, but they did what they had to and that was great if not a little corny.

Nothing beats getting up on stage with a load of rock and rollers and just knocking out track after track of rock n roll classics. Tenor sax is an absolute must some baritone on the Elvis tracks.....lovely!

What a great instrument it is!

 

[fecklesseric]

Bobby G wrote:
That'll be when my Uncle Peter played with them, then.

Oh you name dropper you 😉
But are your really Peter Green's nephew?

 

[frank_johnson]

Bob,
You wouldn't be teasing a devoted PG fan would you? "Need your love so bad", is my favourite.
I believe a manilishi is a bracelet.
Frank :S

 

[tris]

I saw PG when he made his "comeback" at the Buxton pavillion, it was painful.

I was raised on Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Walters, Hendrix, Mayall (I was born in Macclesfeild too!) Bo Diddle, anything that was on Chess etc.

I got into Queen when i was 10 and Brain May and hendrix were my early heros, then Steve Via which turned me on to Zappa. (I also loved prog rockI was getting into Jaco and Mike Stern by the time I was 18 and a certain Mr Brecker's playing made my hair stand on end. This lead me to Coltrane... etc going backwards!

After 12 years of playing MB, Trane, Parker etc on the guitar I decided it was time to get a sax..... I have not looked back