Great Players Who sparked your love of Sax music

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My Dad was a sax player, so we always had a stack of LPs next to the record player. I can remember listening to John Coltrane on an live album called Coltraneology - absolutely magical!

So Coltrane has been as massive influence.

I can also remember going to see the Buddy Rich Big Band as an eleven year old kid and spending the whole gig with my mouth agape as Steve Marcus weaved magic into each one of his solos.

But all-in-all, for me it has to be the old man, for playing the sax and for putting one in my hands as a kid.

If every parent put a musical instrument in their kids hands there would definitely be more peace around.

Happy world peace day.
 
daveysaxboy said:
I use to love the song ECHO BEACH when i was in my teen's and loved that Tenor solo in it and started liking the old horn sound's then.
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Loved Echo Beach- especially the fact it was a guy playing flute who jumped onto tenor for the solo... come on, no one else fans of Rat Trap by the Boomtown Rats? Surely we're about the same vinage- thought that one would have been a blast from your youth!
 
Love that Rat's song al;so and what about Tom Robingson's War Baby,wow great tenor and fantastic soprano.Been playing my Thin Lizzy this week the car and love Dancing in the moonlight,great tenor.
 
I was a plain pop listener until I heard Branford Marsalis on Sting's Bring On The Night. I immediately knew that I had to learn to play the clarinet... until I realised it was a soprano sax!!!
The same week I sold my Vespa and walked to a dodgy music shop in Rome where I bought myself a (very) used Grassi tenor.
Went home, learnt how to make sounds with it and started exploring music that contained saxophone solos so went to another dodgy shop and pick up a Coltrane bootleg. It literally took me five years to be able to listen to Coltrane but those five years were a wonderful journey towards jazz through the pop sax solos of careless whisper and Sade, Grover Washington Jr and David Sanborn, the mighty Bob Berg/Mike Stern and the many fusion bands of the 90's, and slowly back to the true jazz of the 50's and 60's when the un-listenable Coltrane bootleg finally got the appreciation it deserved.
So I guess I have to thank Mr Sumner for introducing me to the magic of saxophone, sax playing and the most glorious music of my life!
 
For me it was Johnny Paris (Johnny and the Hurricanes), Steve Douglas (Duane Eddy), Bill Haley and Bill Blacks Combo, and all the surf-rockers. I used to buy American instrumental records from the age of 13, finally deciding to take up tenor when I was 18 - buying a rattly, clapped-out Mk VI. Still got it. If you don't blow and just use the keys it sounds like one of those old-fashioned manual typewriters! Got its own built in rhythm section. LoL.
 
Well for me it was also, undoubtedly the sax solo from Will you, written and performed by Wes Magoogan, who as Taz stated in an earlier post, had his sax career taken away from him after an accident with a cicular saw.
Told my teacher this week and he is gonna try and teach it to me:shocked:......may have his work cut out there 🙂))
 
I bought my wife an alto about 5 years ago as she said she wished to learn. The thing then merely gathered dust in the corner of the bedroom.

I'd always loved Baker Street, Will you etc but the tune that stuck in my mind was Your Latest Trick, having seen it performed live a few times. That was just brilliant.

A few months back work was stressful and Your Latest Trick came on the radio. I remembered my wifes sax and immediately rang up a local music school..... one day I hope to have the skill to play it!
 
All my friends played an instrument and I was the only one who didn't.
My playing of the tenor sax was never out of an influence. It just seemed like the logical instrument to play in the band because it was a solo instrument and no one else played it....I thought it would be cool to learn how to play it...
 
compound said:
Hi mamos,
For me it was Gene Barge on tenor sax backing Gary U S Bond's on the big hit Quarter to Three. Simple but effective.
Rob.
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Great!!! Both Gary US Bonds and Gene Barge are important for us who likes rocksax. US Bonds use a lot of saxes on his recordings and at stage as well. Gene Barge, Bobby Keys, Clarence Clemons, David Woodford, Joe Stann .... Often a good saxsolo/saxplayer on his songs. Gene Barge and Gary US Bonds wrote the song "Quarter to Three". I like Gary US Bonds latest CD "Back In The 20" as well.

Gene Barge is the kind of muscians who is complete. Good saxplayer, songwriter, producer, arranger, bandleader + side man .... . There were a couple of saxplayers that had that ability: King Curtis, Jesse Powell, Maxwell Davis, Buddy Lucas ..... . Beside Gary US Bonds you can hear his sax on lots of recordings: Chuck Willis "CC Rider", Little Milton "We Gonna Make It" .... .

Gary US Bonds and Gene Barge have long carriers. From the late 50's/early 60's and they are still active on the musicscene. Gene Barge are among the saxplayers that toured with Rolling Stones. Ernie Watts, Bobby Keys, Sonny Rollins ... are other saxplayers that shared stage with Rolling Stones . "Daddy G" inspired King Curtis as well. And Bonds & Barge, they also survived the "British Invasion"!!

So both Gary US Bonds and Gene Barge sparked my love of (rock)Sax music! Together with lots of others!!

Thomas
 
I was just listening to Pink Floyd, and was suddenly reminded of the fantastic sound of Dick Parry. I'm not sure why no one else has mentioned him before. He's an amazing player, I also love the way he swaps between Barri and tenor, I'd be too scared of damaging one of them. But I guess when your on his wages you just go buy a new one! Here's a youtube clip. Parry starts on Barri at around 2.22 and then slips quickly to the tenor at about 3.08
It's worth watching just for the change over!
 
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How the hell did he learn to do that?

We can all learn to do tricky things, but during the learning process we always make mistakes. How many times did he bash the saxes together when he was first trying to do it? If the answer is none, he has truly sold his soul to Beelzebub. Speaking as someone who once lacerated a lip, to gushing blood extent, with a tenor swinging back on a sling, it's amazing. In my case there wasn't even another instrument involved, I'd just pushed the tenor back so I could sing some backing vocals, and the tenor swung round and bit me. It was probably a complaint from the sax about my awful singing. Thank God it was during practice, not at a gig.
 
IMO "Woody" Woodford is one of the best now living rocksaxplayers. Still busy in LA and playing sax every weekend in a great band called Sounds Of New Orleans. Kenny Sara (drm, leader), Richard Taylor(keys +baspedal), Johnny Turner (gtr) and David Woodford.

Thomas
 
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