The Joy of Sax

[king ubu]

attempting a list of favourites is quite a task ... even more so, if I can't separate alto and tenor and baritone ... but let's try - be prepared, this will be a long list, and the grouping is somewhat arbitrary of course - a net would be a better way to depict things ... and time would need to be reflected as well, of course:

Sidney Bechet
Charlie Holmes
Johnny Hodges
Willie Smith
Benny Carter

Coleman Hawkins
Ben Webster
Chu Berry
Herschel Evans
Joe Thomas
Paul Gonsalves
Illinois Jacquet
Ike Quebec
Hal Singer
James Clay
Maceo Parker

Harry Carney (rock bottom)

Lester Young (the Pres! still rules my world!)

Don Byas
Budd Johnson

Frank Trumbauer (the sides with Bix!)
Bud Freeman

Charlie Parker (Charlie Parker! Charlie Parker!! Charlie fucking Parker!!! Charlie fucking Parker, dude!!!! Bird Lives!!!!!!)

Lee Konitz
Warne Marsh
Ted Brown

Charlie Mariano
Serge Chaloff

Paul Desmond

Dexter Gordon
Wardell Gray
Allen Eager
Teddy Edwards
Lucky Thompson
Benny Golson

Johnny Griffin
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Sonny Stitt
Gene Ammons
Yusef Lateef

Sonny Rollins

John Coltrane (my favourite musician of all times, if I need to pick one)

Jackie McLean
Gigi Gryce
Cannonball Adderley (a giant!)
Dave Schildkraut
Frank Strozier

Hank Mobley
Tina Brooks
George Coleman
Stanley Turrentine
Booker Ervin
J.R. Monterose

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

John Gilmore
Clifford Jordan
Von Freeman
Eddie Harris (dude effin' rules!)

Gerry Mulligan
Bob Gordon

Stan Getz
Zoot Sims
Al Cohn
Bill Perkins
Richie Kamuca

Art Pepper (the early, the middle, and even more so the late! won't get more honest than late Art Pepper)
Bud Shank
Buddy Collette
Lennie Niehaus

Joe Maini
Curtis Amy

Hans Koller
Lars Gullin
Barney Wilen
Tubby Hayes
Bobby Wellins

Kippie Moeketsi

Steve Lacy
Eric Dolphy
Sonny Simmons
Billy Harper

Ornette Coleman
Albert Ayler
Jimmy Lyons
Sam Rivers
Archie Shepp (prefer the early one - that run of Impulse-albums is staggering!)
Marion Brown
Arthur Jones
Noah Howard
Charles Tyler
Joe McPhee

Joe Harriott
Dudu Pukwana
Joe Malinga

Roscoe Mitchell
Fred Anderson
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre
Henry Threadgill
Anthony Braxton
Julius Hemphill
Hamiet Bluiett
Ernest Dawkins

Peter Brötzmann
Evan Parker
Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky
Anders Gahnold
Gianluigi Trovesi
Mike Osborne
Elton Dean

Thomas Chapin
John Zorn
Michael Blake
Paul Shapiro
Matana Roberts

[escher]

great list king ubu!

Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster from 1960-1961.

Talking of this, have you ever seen this video? Webster was playing with Teddy Wilson when someone informed them that Hodges had died. So they decided to play this truly touching and beautiful version of Old folks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxGUnKV8b3Y

[San Antone]

have you ever seen this video? Webster was playing with Teddy Wilson when someone informed them that Hodges had died. So they decided to play this truly touching and beautiful version of Old folks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxGUnKV8b3Y

I had not seen that before - very nice.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Don't forget about this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyHbRrvXxl4

[escher]

Stan Tracey - Starless and bible black (1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUNuxalrCis

Probably the best track of european jazz I'm aware of*. Bobby Wellins on tenor.




*with all the great players Europe has produced, still I struggle when I have to think of great tracks that stand against the american masterpieces like this one, but maybe it's just my ignorance (I hope so). It could be the argument of a thread.

[escher]

Don't forget about this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyHbRrvXxl4

nice tone! 

[escher]

Some more memorable solos:

Don Byas - I got rhyhtm (Coltrane's sheets of sound in 1945!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ypn2rWvFA

Von Freeman - Footprints
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vran2PA77U

John Gilmore - Thoughts under a dark blue light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg5UMMiC5zo

Booker Ervin - The trance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i59v_0x5a_0

[San Antone]

Booker Ervin - The trance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i59v_0x5a_0

Great player.  His "books" records are also good.