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The Story Of Jazz Saxophone

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For some, the saxophone is the sound of jazz. The unique fusion of brass and woodwind that is the sax found an electrifying vibrato in the hands of jazzmen that truly changed the world. The pale "pure" tone of the instrument, as first used in classical compositions, vanished in a musical blast of slurs ( Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges, occasional exciting "false-fingering" (Lester Young) and runs almost too fast, for some at the time, to listen to (Charlie Parker). Parker employed the range of the alto sax and its keying system to show the world a new music entirely, while "sonorists" like Stan Getz (possessor of "The Sound") turned the instrument into, effectively, the "sexophone." And so Hollywood movies have always automatically cued a sax solo " When Lights Are Low," as the Benny Carter title says.

Enter The Sax: Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins, known as "The Hawk" or "Bean," basically invented tenor sax as we know it, all the way down to Bill Clinton playing his way to office. After making many recordings with various groups and orchestras from the 1920s, the Hawk took an unusual step in the mid 1930s, travelling to Europe for four years. On his return to America in 1939, he recorded the classic "Body And Soul," a solo tenor exposition in front of a small group. This was the future, and indeed Hawkins said it himself in the early 40s, when he told a friend that small groups were the future of jazz. Yet, back in the '20s, Hawkins may have been an important builder of the big band era, as the orchestra with which he was most associated at the time was that of Fletcher Henderson, the great swing arranger (for Benny Goodman).

Hawkin's sound is full and round-bodied. Sounds like a wine, don't it? The revolutionary sound of the instrument, and its capabilities, is well demonstrated in this relatively early record by Hawkins with The Chocolate Dandies, from 1933:



Two years later, "The Hawk" was in Holland-here is a priceless film of him saying "hello," and playing, to the Dutch people:



Then there is the "must hear" "Body And Soul" of 1939:



Benny Carter
By the early thirties, Benny Carter was, with Johnny Hodges, one of the two main alto sax players around. He was also a noted arranger and composer: his "When Lights Are Low" is a classic tune (it was recorded by for example Miles Davis). Like Hawkins, he spent time in Europe in the mid '30s. Carter was active to 1997, and left us as late as 2003! Here are clips of Carter in the 1940s and in 1997:

Swing Society: Lester Young

Lester Young
Lester Young was the opposite approach to Hawkins: a light, airy sound that was soon transformed into bebop and modern jazz by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Lester played with Count Basie as the leading solo voice, and was also a very good composer. He became best friends with Billie Holliday, and unfortunately died within months of her also. He was rumored to wear lipstick at times, and his sensitive persona saw him sitting on the floor in the bathroom with his tenor sax, in tears. His peak tracks are generally felt to be up to and including 1944, when he was drafted. In the army, racism affected him badly, but many of his (more boogie) records after the war are also interesting.

Young's playing is very distinctive; as Count Basie said: "Lester was a stylist." He has a sideways sound, and indeed he used to sling his saxophone sideways on the band stand instead of facing straight ahead like the other players. There are photos of him standing up and holding the sax horizontally in front and to the side of him: this may have been for show, but it is HOW he sounded. There is an excellent double CD compilation on the Primo label, "The Immortal Lester Young."

Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young provide the template for tenor sax to the present (Coltrane apart of course). Hawkins sounds more mainstream, but it is really Young's vibratoless approach that made modern jazz possible.

A good description is from Answers.com: "Young's freewheeling style included holding the saxophone at odd angles: he often held it nearly horizontal. His signature porkpie hat also was copied by generations of jazz musicians. Young and his contemporary Coleman Hawkins are often listed as the original twin towers of modern jazz saxophone." Unlike the other twins, these two will never fall.

The 1936 track "Shoe Shine Swing" shows "Pres" in flight:



The Influence Of Ellington

Johnny Hodges
Parallel to or just behind Hawkins in terms of start time (Hawkins was already recording important records with Fletcher Henderson's band in 1924) was Johnny Hodges, the famous alto saxophonist with Duke Ellington' orchestra. Nicknamed "the Rabbit," Hodges is the most beautiful sax sound in jazz: rich, often described as "creamy," and setting up the most sensual of Ellington's masterpieces (or those his sidekick Billy Strayhorn), particularly in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hodges stayed with Ellington until 1970 (he left for a five year period in 1951) as his premier soloist.

Here is a Hodges feature:



Ben Webster
Another powerful player in the general Hawkins mould was Ben Webster. Webster had a very distinctive sound, and is most famous for his immense contributions to Duke Ellington's peak band of the early 1940s, not surprisingly known as the [Blanton]-Webster band (Jimmy Blanton was the revolutionary bassist who single-handedly invented modern bass playing and provided the "spring in the swing" of the Ellington band of this famous era). The track "Cottontail" is a brilliant example of Webster's power and virtuosity, and, as it was recorded in 1940, is also an example (due to Ellington's writing) of virtual "pre-Parker modern jazz." Webster could do it. A quote attributed to Webster, from 1973, is this: "Son, you are young and growing, and I am old and going. So have your fun while you can!" Many brilliant photos of Webster are collected at Ben Webster

The masterful Webster plays Gershwin's "How Long has This Been Going On":



Harry Carney
Beginning his recording career in 1924 with Ellington, Harry Carney was the baritone saxophonist who gave Ellington his very important deeper sound area . Ellington's and Strayhorn's scores would have the trumpets, other saxophones and trombones on one stave each, but there was always a separate stave entirely for Carney: his lower baritone part was very important to the sound (an alto sax is relatively high pitched, a tenor sax lower, and the baritone very low).

Here is Carney playing his show piece, the solo in "Sophisticated Lady" in 1964:



Gerry Mulligan also played baritone sax, beginning in the early 1950s, but in the ("West Coast") modern jazz style. He made exceptionally interesting records with Chet Baker on trumpet, in their famous piano-less quartet over 1952-53.

Bebop: Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker
Charlie "Bird" Parker played alto saxophone. He wasn't really a saxophonist however, more a composer. The alto sax was the voice that his compositions came through. He was strongly influenced by the Duke's Johnny Hodges ("He plays so pretty," said Parker of Hodges at a 'mystery record' listening session on the radio: "Give that all the stars you can muster!") but Parker's language was totally new, rooted in the composer Bela Bartok's flattened fifth notes and melody lines of the composer Paul Hindemith (see the first movement of Hindemith's Kammermusik No2 Op 36/1, for example). Parker was also heavily influenced by the blues, and oddly enough was first inspired to play alto (indeed, sax) by hearing crooner Rudy Vallee and his reedy alto sax on the radio as a child. He listened to everything, once commenting to a friend as they were walking past a rock and roll joint, "Do you hear what the bassist is doing," when the friend could only hear noise. On another occasion he was asked why he was listening to some country music in a bar. He is supposed to have replied, "The stories, man... listen to the stories."

Parker's best recordings were made over the years 1944-48 on small labels, though two later live gigs stand out as masterpieces: both were with Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) and Bud Powell (piano). The albums are Summit At Birdland(CBS, 1951 ) and Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut, OSC, 1953). The latter also featured Charlie Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums, and is justifiably nominated as pretty much a home run selection for the "best live jazz album" ever.

Few clips exist of Parker -here he is with Dizzy Gillespie in 1951 at an awards presentation:



Post Bop

Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt sounded a lot like Parker, but had his own color. In the early '50s, when Parker was crashing out health-wise, he reportedly said to Stitt, "I'm not long for this world, man. I'm giving you the keys to the Kingdom." Some of Stitt's best records were with Bud Powell, over 1949-50.

Sonny Stitt:



Stan Getz
Stan Getz took the lighter vibrato-less sound of Lester Young, and added the sensual approach of Hodges; he played it on the tenor sax, and when he mixed it with bossa nova, invented perhaps the most intoxicating sax sound on record. He was known as "The Sound" in the late 1940s, when he began playing with Woody Herman's band as part of the "Four Brothers," four Los Angeles-based sax players (three tenor and one baritone) who helped Herman invent new and tougher big band sounds (the "Four Brothers" tag was actually an amending of the true name they had had for themselves, the "Four M...ers."

Getz's most commercial, and best, album is surely Jazz Samba (Verve, 1962) from 1962. This is pure beach-babe music. Getz is paired with guitarist Charlie Byrd to make a bossa nova masterpiece, featuring some of Carlos Antonio Jobim's bossa tunes and other works.

There are a number of Getz sites: PBS

His label Verve: Verve

Getz was Verve's biggest success. The label also has a brief jazz history section on their site, by type of jazz.

There is an interesting interview (1986) by Mel Martin at Getz Interview There is also a superlative listing of his recording sessions, beginning at the age of fifteen in 1943 at Getz Sessions A number of videos are at Getz Videos

This clip is a brilliant performance of "Woody 'N You" in Italy in 1961:



John Coltrane
Everyone knows tenor player John Coltrane. Firstly a member of Davis' "first great quintet" in the 1950s, he also played with Ellington on the album Take The Coltrane (Impulse!, 1962). In addition to the well known albums Giant Steps (Prestige, 1959) and A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964), Ascension (Impulse!, 1965) is a very interesting piece. His son Ravi said that a key to understanding Coltrane is that he often wrote in whole tones eg: the tune "Giant Steps." The theme progresses in "giant steps": a series of notes two whole tones apart. Coltrane also recorded the famous vocal album John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963) with singer Johnny Hartman.

A recent addition to the Coltrane discography is the album Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005): the tapes were discovered in the last decade and found to be very good quality.

Here Coltrane plays his peerless "Naima" (from the Giant Steps album) in 1965:



Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins was one of the two tenor saxophone titans, with Coltrane, of the '50s and '60s. His album title Saxophone Colossus (OJC, 1956) was titled quite accurately! His mother was from the Caribbean, which led to his adaption of a melody from his childhood into "St Thomas," a Rollins musical calling (and post-) card. It is the first track on Saxophone Colossus. The Bridge (RCA, 1962) is another major Rollins album, and was so named because it was recorded after a transitional period when he was famous for "wood-shedding" on the Williamsburg bridge. The album also showed that Rollins had crossed the bridge to a new quasi-atonal style. Another aspect of Rollins' style is shown by the story of a club date one Easter where, as "Good Friday" came up at midnight, Rollins broke from his no doubt powerful solo to smoothly interject a quote from Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade."

Here he plays his theme "St Thomas":



Cannonball Adderley
Cannonball Adderley is perhaps first and foremost famous for being a member of the Miles Davis sextet group that recorded both Milestones (CBS, 1958) and (CBS, 1959). He was the alto player: his partner on (tenor) sax was Coltrane. (The latter is, of course, regularly named the "best jazz album ever"). Adderley took the virtuosity and music of Parker and added "extensions": colossal exclamations at the end of a phrase. His best album is surely the brilliant Something Else (Blue Note, 1959), with Miles Davis as trumpet. A historic live album by his quintet was The Cannonball Adderley Quintet In San Francisco [Live] (OJC, 1959). His brother Nat was on cornet for this album and Bobby Timmons, (composer of the "souljazz"/funk "Moanin,'" and "Dat 'Dere"), was on piano. Adderley also recorded a bossa nova album, and won a Grammy in 1967 for the album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live At 'The Club' (Blue Note, 1966).

Adderley plays in the early '60s here:



Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman invented "free jazz," and plays to this day. His "harmolodics" have a truly different compositional effect when heard: this writer was awed by the different listening experience of hearing Coleman for the first time in a live theatre concert in 2001. His sound runs from acrid brief Parker moments to totally new musical structures.

Coleman veers into space in front of an almost rock backing in this clip of "Schoolwork" from Italy in 1974:



Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter played with Miles Davis' second major quintet in the 1960s, then formed the fusion group Weather Report. But he is a very good tenor saxophonist in more conventional jazz formats, and this writer saw him play in a quartet in London, and in 2003 he performed his more recent excellent full orchestra music at, for example, The Hollywood Bowl. Shorter recorded several innovative albums under his own name in the '60s, such as The Soothsayer (Blue Note, 1965), which included an arrangement of classical composer Sibelius' "Valse Triste." Shorter is, and always has been, a composer as much as a saxophonist, like Coltrane and Parker.

Lou Donaldson
First encountered on the 1954 double live album recording of the band that shortly thereafter became The Jazz Messengers [ (Blue Note, 1954)], alto player Lou Donaldson elegantly fuses Charlie Parker with Johnny Hodges. In the 1960s, he released a series of very popular "boogaloo" (should that be "boogalou"?) albums with the Hammond B3 organ of, amongst others, Dr Lonnie Smith. A major hit single was "Alligator Boogaloo" (1967). By the late 1960s, funk was very apparent in Donaldson's records: it is perhaps no surprise that in late 2008 this writer was standing outside the famous Colony record store on Broadway and 51st when he heard a tremendous funk groove from the store's outside speaker. What was it? "Lou Donaldson," the store people informed him. The album in question was Everything I PLay is Funky (Blue Note, 1970). Donaldson performs currently with his quartet, including Dr. Lonnie Smith at the Hammond (also on Everything I PLay is Funky).

Donaldson is at a concert in Portugal in this clip:



Kenny Garrett
Described on a Facebook fan site as "really nasty" (!), Kenny Garrett is indeed a fresh voice in jazz (alto) saxophone. Cutting his reeds (and no doubt teeth also) with the Duke Ellington orchestra (under Duke's son Mercer) in 1978, he was soon playing with Miles Davis in the '80s. From Ellington to Miles? There could hardly be better training. Now he is playing with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin in the magnificent Five Peace Band, currently on a world tour. A signature effect is his bursts of descending note runs. Garrett has at times a rock touch, but also a fluid and beautiful Parker-like sound. Rest assured that this guy is no relation, musically or otherwise, to Kenny G.

This clip is of Garrett in 1995, at a South of France festival with Pat Metheny:

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