How Much Is a Saxophone Cleaning at Musicand Arts
Sonny Rollins; Credit: Bengt Nyman/Wikimedia Commons
It'due south considered by many to be music's sexiest musical instrument. Its versatile audio, and then like a great vocaliser'southward voice — sweetly seductive one moment, growling and blustery the next — has get virtually synonymous with the entire genre of jazz. Yet less than a century ago, the saxophone was considered a supporting actor in orchestras and jazz bands — too awkwardly pitched halfway betwixt brass and woodwinds to stand on its own but useful for blending the 2 (or as a audio of pure comic relief, a role it even so ably filled many years later on in the theme music to The Benny Hill Show).
Over the sax's 90-odd years as a lead musical instrument, the twenty men on this list have all avant-garde its role in jazz and pop music in important ways. Some have forged entirely new sounds and methods of playing. Others have helped popularize the sax by playing it on hit records and bringing it to new audiences. Many of them are recognized equally the most skilled players of their eras. Several have managed to do all 3.
Inevitably, a few worthy names fell short of making the list. Simply for our coin, these are the 20 greatest saxophonists of all time.
twenty. Gerry Mulligan
Arguably the greatest baritone sax actor in history — or at to the lowest degree the near influential — Mulligan'south velvet tones eternally linked his musical instrument to the West Coast "cool jazz" sounds of the 1950s, peculiarly through his work on Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool sessions and his legendary Fifty.A. "pianoless quartet" with trumpeter Chet Baker. But to reduce Mulligan'south affect to cool jazz does his 50-twelvemonth career a disservice. Mulligan was as adept swinging aslope one of his heroes, Ben Webster, and later in his career explored modernist variations of big-band jazz on albums such equally Age of Steam and 1980's Grammy-winning Walk on the Water. —Andy Hermann
19. Clarence Clemons
No rock saxophonist was more iconic than "the Big Man," who for nigh 40 years gave Bruce Springsteen'due south music much of its swagger with his forceful, King Curtis–influenced sound. Though powerful enough to emulate the great honkers of early on R&B and rock & roll, Clemons' nigh famous solo, on Built-in to Run'due south "Jungleland," was remarkable for the way it combined that ability with a gorgeously lyrical quality that perfectly matched the romanticism of Springsteen's songwriting. Throughout his career, he was a get-to session man for anyone who wanted a tenor sax solo with that crude-edged, rock & scroll feel, from Janis Ian to Aretha Franklin to Joe Cocker to, improbably, Lady Gaga. —A.H.
xviii. Joe Henderson
As the hottest immature tenor saxophonist during the height of the golden Bluish Note era of mod jazz, Joe Henderson recorded for that characterization at to the lowest degree 37 times between 1963 and 1968. He became i of its signature voices, with his warm, slightly gritty audio punctuating his articulate and quirky improvisatory figurations. His albums are essential listening for any jazz aficionado, and many of the tunes he wrote are now archetype jazz standards, efficient vignettes of melodies and chords that helped to define modal jazz harmony. It'due south impossible to overstate the impact this saxophonist has had on the legacy of jazz. —Gary Fukushima
17. Ben Webster
This Kansas City native was already office of jazz history in the 1930s, playing with Bennie Moten, Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, but Webster came into his ain in the '40s with the Knuckles Ellington Orchestra. Fraternal when sober, contentious when drunk, his Jekyll-and-Hyde persona surfaced in his music. His tender ballad playing would morph into raw but swinging assailment, voiced with a nasty signature growl emulated for decades by both jazz and stone & gyre saxophonists. Webster later recorded with virtuoso pianists Oscar Peterson and Fine art Tatum, producing some of the finest classic early jazz albums in history. —1000.F.
16. Kamasi Washington
Ranking a 35-year-sometime saxophonist anywhere on this list, let lonely ahead of such giants as Webster, Henderson, Clemons and Mulligan, might seem premature. But no jazz tenor actor in nigh a generation has generated as much excitement. Raised in a jazz family in Inglewood and trained at UCLA under such luminaries as Kenny Burrell and Gerald Wilson, Washington has cultivated a audio both steeped in tradition and aggressively aggressive and forward-thinking; non for nothing did he championship his 2015 debut solo album The Epic, or pointedly call its opening track "Change of the Guard." Equally technically gifted as Sonny Rollins, rhythmically adept as Rakim and boundary-shattering equally Dominicus Ra, Washington is already taking jazz to new places — and he's just getting started. —A.H.
fifteen. Albert Ayler
Ayler was one of the pioneers of the '60s free-jazz movement, post-obit closely in the echo of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. The latter idea and then highly of Ayler that, on his death bed, Coltrane requested Ayler play at his funeral. His robust, folklike melodies disintegrate into terrifying anarchy, invoking fright and fascination in the listener'due south soul, an experience non unlike binge-watching episodes of The Walking Dead. His exploratory virtuosity and impassioned vitriol foretold the afterward efforts of saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Joseph Jarman, John Gilmore and other members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). —G.F.
14. Michael Brecker
Amid veteran musicians from both the rock and jazz worlds, it'due south hard to find a more respected saxophonist than Michael Brecker. He absorbed the language and strident sound of Coltrane, harnessing that energy to deftly motility from progressive jazz with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny to every imaginable popular and rock session, with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Parliament-Funkadelic, etc. Brecker became the standard for modern saxophone playing, allowing for Chris Potter, Joshua Redman, Donny McCaslin and other contemporaries whose virtuosity and aesthetics allow them to venture into whatever musical setting. —Chiliad.F.
thirteen. Big Jay McNeely
The overblown (literally) style of sax playing called "honking" is difficult to attribute to just 1 person — information technology was a audio that spread across the state in the late 1940s via various jazz clubs, juke joints and the Chitlin Circuit. Simply if honking had a large-bang moment when it crossed over into popular music, it was surely Cecil James "Big Jay" McNeely'southward 1949 hit, "Deacon's Hop." McNeely, a Watts native who was only 21 when he recorded the searing instrumental, played his instrument with such unhinged ferocity that it inspired an entire generation of R&B sax players to, equally McNeely liked to put it, "blow their brains out." —A.H.
12. Stan Getz
Amongst coincidental jazz fans, Philadelphia native and longtime L.A. resident (until his death in 1991) Stan Getz may exist 2nd only to Coltrane every bit the name well-nigh synonymous with the saxophone. He's most famous for Getz/Gilberto, his 1963 bossa nova collaboration with Brazilian musicians João and Astrud Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, which became one of the all-time-selling jazz albums of all fourth dimension. But his distinctively breathy, lyrical sound graced hundreds of recordings in a variety of styles, from cool jazz to bebop to fusion. His sound was "a paradoxical blend of light and heavy," Hamlet Voice jazz critic Gary Giddens wrote in his Visions of Jazz anthology; "he produced a breezy tone backed past heroic force." —A.H.
xi. Rahsaan Roland Kirk
The jazz world had never seen anything quite similar the Ohio native born Ronald Theodore Kirk when he outburst onto the scene in the early on 1960s. A master of embouchure and circular breathing, Kirk could play up to 3 unlike saxophones at once, including modified instruments he dubbed the "manzello" and the "stritch," as well as flute, oboe, whistles and castanets. Though the gimmickry sometimes threatened to overshadow his other accomplishments, Kirk is remembered today as a pioneer in combining the atonalities of free jazz with more than traditional swing, blues and hard-bop chord progressions — and as a improviser who could squeeze magic out of 1 instrument equally readily as he could make jaws drop with 3. —A.H.
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10. Dexter Gordon
The son of the get-go African-American doctor in Los Angeles, Dexter Gordon also broke new footing as the first tenor saxophonist to play bebop. His immense stature (literally — he stood 6 anxiety, 6 inches tall) contributed to his huge tone and super-relaxed fourth dimension feel. He had a long, successful career, punctuated by a triumphant comeback in the '70s with the landmark live album Homecoming. Gordon'due south charisma was also seen on-screen, as a fading jazz icon in Circular Midnight (earning him an Oscar nomination for his office), and as a silent patient alongside Robin Williams and Robert De Niro in Awakenings. —G.F.
9. Maceo Parker
Whenever y'all hear James Chocolate-brown yell "Maceo!" you know an already funky rails is about to get fifty-fifty funkier. For an incredible run that lasted more than 2 decades, Maceo Parker's tenor and alto sax solos — bright, staccato, syncopated — were virtually synonymous with funk music. Pulling double duty in both Dark-brown's band and George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic, Parker laid down some of funk's well-nigh indelible solos, especially on such Brown classics as "Mother Popcorn," "Super Bad" and "Licking Stick." He was as well a sideman for Prince for many years and has released more than a dozen solo albums that showcase his versatility as a bandleader and soloist working in soul-jazz, R&B and fusion. —A.H.
8. Wayne Shorter
You could brand a strong instance that Wayne Shorter, at 83, is the near influential saxist who still walks amidst u.s., too as the greatest player of the soprano saxophone the world has ever seen. Throughout his career, Shorter has had an uncanny knack for existence an agile participant in jazz'due south evolutionary leaps, from the hard bop he played every bit role of Art Blakey'due south Jazz Messengers to the modal jazz he helped ascertain (equally both sideman and songwriter) in Miles Davis' "Second Neat Quintet" to the funk-laced fusion of Conditions Report. He besides, not incidentally, recorded quite maybe the greatest sax solo in jazz-rock history for Steely Dan'due south "Aja." —A.H.
7. Ornette Coleman
In an art form where finding ane'southward unique voice is paramount, no ane did then with every bit much conviction and defiance as Ornette Coleman. His refusal to let the chords of a tune interfere with his melodic concepts initially got the alto saxophonist into severe trouble with audience members and bandmates alike. Yet Coleman and his visionary quartet would create a revolution in jazz as they ushered in the complimentary-jazz motion. For many, his playing still represents the ultimate expression of liberty — literally from the bonds of harmony and form, metaphorically from the bondage of oppression and prejudice. —1000.F.
6. Coleman Hawkins
Before Hawkins played it, the tenor saxophone was considered a clownish, comedic musical instrument. He was able to coax a smoother nonetheless still rugged tone from it, and upon playing with Louis Armstrong in Fletcher Henderson'due south orchestra, sought to revamp his arroyo to explore more than complex harmonies in his improvisation. His now-immortal solo on "Body and Soul" helped to cement his title as "The Begetter of the Tenor Saxophone." Hawkins was the start to demonstrate unlimited potential for the tenor to become the money instrument of jazz, paving the way for every other tenor player on this list. —Grand.F.
5. Missive Adderley
Depending on your signal of view, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley was either an underrated genius whose brilliance was overshadowed past his more famous collaborators, or the luckiest guy in the room when he recorded Milestones and Kind of Blue as function of Miles Davis' celebrated sextet. But Adderley'south fluid, melodious way helped bridge the gap between Coltrane's complimentary-flowing torrent of ideas and Davis' more than buttoned-upward approach. And his own works equally a bandleader, especially his prolific 1968-lxx run at Capitol Records with recently departed producer David Axelrod, stand equally reminders of what a fearlessly inventive soloist and stylist he could exist, flirting with everything from gospel to classical to Afrobeat. —A.H.
4. Lester Young
He was 1 of the three original giants of the tenor saxophone, along with Webster and Hawkins, but Lester Young separated himself with a sweetness tone and a buoyant sense of rhythm. His arroyo would become the model for Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and so many others to follow. Young also had style in spades, always wearing his signature porkpie hat, holding his horn at a 45-degree angle, and introducing new vernacular, including "cool," "bread" (for money), "dig" and even "homeboy." In many means, Young shaped the direction of not simply jazz but of American civilization. That's cool. —Thou.F.
3. Sonny Rollins
He was on a destructive path of substance abuse when the tragic death of make clean-living trumpeter and bandmate Clifford Brown prompted Sonny Rollins to turn his life around. At age 86, Rollins' stupendous body of work confirms his stature as one of the greatest improvisers alive today, and indeed to have ever lived. An early adopter of motivic evolution, he could nurture a single seed of a melodic idea, growing it over the course of his solo into a forest of brilliant concepts. If life is cosmos, then Rollins has certainly lived it to the fullest. —G.F.
two. John Coltrane
John Coltrane wasn't pussyfooting around when he titled his 1960 anthology Giant Steps. Having already established himself every bit his generation's greatest virtuoso of the tenor sax through his work with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, 'Trane was determined to take his then-chosen "sheets of audio" way one step further and create a new language for jazz. Information technology's a goal virtually agree he achieved less than five years after on A Honey Supreme, a masterwork that imbued the saxophonist's mix of free and modal jazz with the ecstatic spiritualism of a Pentecostal sermon. To this 24-hour interval, 'Trane's combination of unbridled emotion and dazzling technique remains the unattainably high standard every immature sax player strives to live upward to. —A.H.
1. Charlie Parker
Who else? Parker changed the grade of history, turning jazz seemingly overnight from an entertaining dance music into the highest form of spontaneous creative expression. His blazing virtuosity came from years of marathon 11- to 15-hour practice sessions, and the difficult piece of work coupled with his insightful genius resulted in the creation of an entirely new harmonic and melodic language, which became known as bebop. Every single serious jazz musician from that betoken on has owed their very existence as such to Parker, whether they have known it or not. Parker is surely our Mozart, the single greatest musical mind in American history. —G.F.
[Note: An earlier version of this list misspelled Cannonball Adderley's terminal proper noun. Nosotros regret the error.]
Source: https://www.laweekly.com/the-20-greatest-saxophonists-of-all-time/
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