Great Players Who sparked your love of Sax music

[DesertRoads]

For me it wasn't one specific player. In the late 80's-mid 90's I used to frequent El Chapultepec in downtown Denver and would catch a wide range of musical artists that came into that cramped little bar. I heard some amazing musicians. When I was a student at the U of Colorado, Sonny Rollins stopped in to do a Saxophone workshop with a handful of us, and really got me moving into Sax Jazz music. Great memories!

 

[Richie2176]

I know that a lot of us think of the jazz greats when we think of great sax players but what track or player was the initial spark that lit the flame of love for the sax and sax music.

I think it was the sax part in careless whisper played by Steve Gregory that started it all and the the sax solo from "Will you" by Hazel O Conner can't remember who the sax player was but someone will tell me

Who was it for you?

mamos

It was seeing Junior Walker blow The Temptations off the stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in the 70’s he was awesome

 

[LawrenceD]

Sidney Bechet. The 1940 HRS sides with Muggsy Spanier were some of the first jazz I heard (rather later than 1940!). To my mind they are still some of Bechet's greatest recordings. He is in rather more relaxed company with the straightforward cornet of Spanier, as opposed to his battling for dominance against more hard driving trumpeters like Max Kaminsky or Sydney de Paris (still good tracks but different).
After that it was Johnny Hodges and Lester Young -we observed on the old forum that Prez' solo on the 1936 Lady Be Good is one of the jazz greats. And I'm still discovering....
Colin

I grew up in England, and I was lucky that my local Essex library had Charlie Parker records. I heard Ornithology when I was 14. That was it. As they say, the rest is history!

 

[davidb926]

Andy Mackay, on the pre-mogadon Roxy Music albums.

 

[Grumps]

Miles Davis. He had so many good ones.

 

[Ballymenaboy]

King Curtis playing Memphis Soul Stew

 

[Greychatter]

Chuck Carter, "Ambivalence," with Stan Kenton.

 

[Greychatter]

Dad was a player and a pastor so I heard lots of hymns at first — and “Stardust,” his signature tune. But when I began playing, I fell hard into big band. “Ambivalence,” Quin Davis (alto), Hank Levy arrangement from Kenton’s 1972 London concerts on “Stan Kenton Today.”

 

[Rob5755]

Clarence Clemons - "Jungleland"

 

[Rob5755]

Archie Shepp and Clarence Clemons.

 

[arbin]

My older brother was a musician and had a vast amount of LP’s. When I was 10 or so he played me a Bird record that I couldn’t stop thinking about. A couple of years later he introduced me to Ornette Coleman and very shortly after I owned my first Conn.

 

[oldsaxplayer]

I know that a lot of us think of the jazz greats when we think of great sax players but what track or player was the initial spark that lit the flame of love for the sax and sax music.

I think it was the sax part in careless whisper played by Steve Gregory that started it all and the the sax solo from "Will you" by Hazel O Conner can't remember who the sax player was but someone will tell me

Who was it for you?

mamos

Charlie Parker playing Donna Lee. My mouth dropped on the floor and hasn't really moved since. Then I heard Coltrane on Blue Train and Ornette Coleman witn Prime Time. I was hooked!

 

[mark_addy]

...and I lived in NYC, so there were many great horn players, even the buskers on the streets.

I've been reading through some of these posts, and this comment jumped out at me. When I had a 'proper job' I got to attend three conferences in the USA - two in NYC and one in LA. Both times in NYC I stayed in Manhattan - the conference was in the Javits, for those that know it - and kept the cost down by it being 'fun to stay at the YMCA'. The standard of buskers, and people doing really small-time gigs in various tiny clubs in the Village which I found by trawling through the Rough Guide - absolutely blew me away. As a bonus, on the second trip an enthusiastic postgrad got tickets for Tower of Power at BB King's club (two sets, we got kicked out after one and the next crowd came in - how did that bari player manage it!) and also I picked up a baritone off a bloke who met me at his office (as I remember) in a deal I had set up using American Ebay, when I knew I had clearance to go to the conference. It was cheap (in UK terms), that was the attraction, and trying to play it is what recently drew me here. That was 22 years ago, in the BC era (Before Children). I first picked up a sax (my Dad's, though he no longer played it) almost 50 years ago. Ouch.

 

[DesertRoads]

I only liked playing the Saxophone throughout middle school and high school. I started on clarinet, then added Tenor Sax in middle school, and trumpet in high school. It wasn't until I was a music major at University did I get to meet and have a workshop with Sonny Rollins. There were 5 of us including Sonny and over the next 4 hours, he showed us what a Saxophone could really do. I was impressed. He never spoke ill of any other Saxophonist, only gave them praise, no matter their music style.
He even had nice things to say about Kenny G--of whom is an amazing Saxophonist! I met Kenny after a concert and he's such a nice and genuine fellow. Although his music is classified as adult contemporary, he can play some pretty mean Jazz licks! Dave Koz got me hooked on Yamaha Saxophones due to their consistent quality and intonation. I've always preferred the brighter sound, until this year where I have heard some nice vintage horns and enjoy the darker sound as well. I've added a few vintage horns to capture that darker sound.

There was this neat little Jazz club in downtown Denver called El Chapultepec, which is sadly no longer there. I would spend my weekends there throughout high school, college and beyond. I LOVED seeing and hearing so many music greats come through the doors. Aside from the local musicians, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr, Mick Jagger, Natalie Cole, David Booker, Freddy Rodriguez, among others, all were in attendance when I was there. Sad seeing the place close. Hopefully jazz will see a resurgence. I miss the jazz clubs. There is one that's here in downtown Salt Lake that I've been to a few times. It's a neat experience, and is well worth the trip.

 

[Pete Effamy]

My earliest listens were Paul Desmond and Grover.

 

[lig]

Definitely Grover for me. Inner City Blues (his debut album) and his playing on Idris Muhammad’s Power of Soul.

 

[tburn9876]

Well tbh I wanted to play saxophone when I was little, I don't want sparked that growing up in the late 90s early 2000s. Maybe Christmas music? My mom listened to modern (at the time) country and my dad listened to classic rock from 60s/70s. I went with rock and picked up the guitar when I was 15. The last decade or so I've been watching people like Luke Pickman (Instrument Maniac on YouTube) and Carlos Eiene (insaneintherainmusic on YouTube) and kind of wanted to play because of them, and found a love of jazz.

 

[Joe from New Orleans]

I know that a lot of us think of the jazz greats when we think of great sax players but what track or player was the initial spark that lit the flame of love for the sax and sax music.

I think it was the sax part in careless whisper played by Steve Gregory that started it all and the the sax solo from "Will you" by Hazel O Conner can't remember who the sax player was but someone will tell me

Who was it for you?

mamos

Any sax solo by Sam Butera played with Louis Prima from their Capitol recordings from the late 1950s. His sound on tenor, the way he built his solos...he just wailed. Then seeing him live years later just sealed it for me.

 

[ghostler]

An inspiration for me was Jimmy Dorsey, the brother of Tommy Dorsey. Recordings I enjoyed listening to go back to the 1950's when Tommy invited him to be a soloist with his band. His style on alto sax was so velvety, so smooth, it was an inspiration for me to imitate him on alto.

 

[pablop]

I got bit by the horn bug through Rock and Roll, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino etc etc…through that I moved onto Funk, Soul and R&B. That lead to jazz.
To this day Bob Berg playing Friday Night at the Cadillac Club makes me want to play,