Great Players Who sparked your love of Sax music

[Jules]

Big Jay McNeely- still going strong and he's nearly 80. Was absolutely gutted last week- missed his gig in Amsterdam due to my flight getting delayed. He's back on this side of the pond in September- I'm holding out for some UK dates..

 

[peter_fitton]

I think I realised that I loved the sound of the sax when I first heard Pick Up the Pieces by the Average White Band when I was about 12 or something.

But the guy who really inspired me to want to play was none other than Nachoman's old sax teacher - David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator.

Cheers

Peter

 

[jazzzzz8]

Not so much a sax player, but as a young lad who played guitar for years anf wanted to wooo the girls,,,ha what better way is to play sax I thought...so here I am 48 still blowing my head off to Latin Style

 

[josh_johnson]

Listening to John Coltrane as a kid. The local player who really gave me a kick in the right direction was Andy Sheppard. I used to get lessons from him when I was a teenager and when he was not famous. He was an absolute inspiration - I used to go to his gigs and listen, open-mouthed for the whole gig.

Then he got famous and too busy to give lessons. That guy used to live and breathe jazz, probably still does.

 

[thomsax]

Jr Walker and King Curits. I decided to play the saxophone when I heard them on the Swedish radio in the late 60's! My brother and sister helped me to record the songs on a Tandberg tape recorder. I still have the tapes and the recorder. Later on CCR and John Forgerty also influenced me. I learned Fogherty's saxsolos by ear. And of course, The Big Man (Clarence Clemons) in the early 70's were something new for me.

Thomas

 

[Kinda]

Baker Street and Candy Dulfer et al.

 

[Jules]

Doh!- forgot a very obvious one- omnipresent in the mid1980s in Leeds and York, the splendid Dick Heckstall Smith. Nice guy, great player, sadly missed...

 

[Tenor Sax]

dooce wrote:

griff136 wrote:
Stan Getz the Bossa nova years done it for me.

Same here, but it was his Focus album that really pricked my ears up.

Three for Stan. Bossa Nova for me too.

 

[RedBottom]

jazzzzz8 wrote:
Not so much a sax player, but as a young lad who played guitar for years anf wanted to wooo the girls,,,ha what better way is to play sax I thought...so here I am 48 still blowing my head off to Latin Style

But did it work? is the question.

 

[Col9]

Well for me it had to be the Blues Brothers film. And the reason for a baritone was inspired after watching The Syd Lawrence Orchestra playing in Northampton. There was a young woman swinging one around like it was made of sponge, effortless and sounded amazing.

The other halfs inspirations were Minie the Moocher from the same film and The Pink Panther.

The only sax players I could relate to or name before I started playing was zoot from The Muppets and Lisa from the Simpsons. Which makes me wonder how many of you are really telling the truth! 😉

Col.

 

[jools]

Sadly - both The Muppets and The Simpsons were long after my age of awareness. I grew up with Tom & Jerry and Thunderbirds (both containing some ace jazz, I might add)

 

[Col9]

Off on a tangent a bit I know but my inspiration for saving for an EWI 4000s is the original series of Battlestar Galactica. All the dancing in club scenes can be faithfully recreated with some silk and a EWI. 😉

Col.

PS Tom and Jerry are without doubt the greatest.

 

[jools]

hahaha, yup, I'd forgotten about T&J. Absolutely criminal that they are banned from TV these days.

I used to love it when the housekeeper arrived on the scene, and you never got to see her above the waist. She'd come waddling in to the tune of "Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread" and some screaming trumpets.

The more I think about it, that was the first jazz I ever remember hearing.

 

[Jules]

Jools wrote:
hahaha, yup, I'd forgotten about T&J. Absolutely criminal that they are banned from TV these days.

Are They?

:cry:

 

[jools]

... last I heard, yeh. The Beeb (bless-em) said they were too violent. (I think they were the inspiration for 'Itchy & Scratchy')
That, and the fact that I haven't seen them since I was about 18. LOL.

 

[Jules]

Just picked up a boxed set of old 1960s Pink Panther cartoons. Totally forgotten quite how wierd and druggy some of them were, psychadelic and then psome...!

 

[onecat]

Coltrane. I was 17 when I started playing tenor.

 

[philthd]

am i the only one confused by all this getz-worship?

a very talented player, and part of the four brothers, but i cant imagine anyone finding him inspiring - despite the fact that many of my students and several other people ive jammed with say they want to sound like him.

chaqu'un a son gout, je suppose

 

[suethesax]

nachoman wrote:

Jools wrote:
hahaha, yup, I'd forgotten about T&J. Absolutely criminal that they are banned from TV these days.

Are They?

:cry:

Why are they banned? I used to love Tom & Jerry and The Magic Roundabout.

 

[Tenor Sax]

Sue wrote:

nachoman wrote:

Jools wrote:
hahaha, yup, I'd forgotten about T&J. Absolutely criminal that they are banned from TV these days.

Are They?

:cry:

Why are they banned? I used to love Tom & Jerry and The Magic Roundabout.

Can you believe it, this day and age of violent films and the Simpsons. "Tom and Jerry are too Violent"