Elliott Chavers has been down that road. Name the road, and Chavers has been there. Having played on over 200 recordings in his nearly 50 years in the music business, the saxophonist is defines the word veteran. But unlike some of his aging peers, Chavers refuses to stop, to walk off into the sunset. In fact, he has just released another album, Covers the Bases. Released on the California-based independent label Hi Desert Records, Covers the Bases pays homage to Chavers' Texas roots.
As a youth growing up in Waco, Texas, Chavers was enveloped by various styles of music; he absorbed them all. By the time he was 13, Chavers was already jamming in nightclubs. At the time, the local scene was electrified by country, Gospel, blues, and jazz. On Covers the Bases, Chavers offers a glimpse of what that must have been like. Chavers reworks Hank Williams' lovelorn country smash “Your Cheating Heart" into a jazz ballad, his blue-Monday saxophone evoking beer-drenched tears. The instrumental version of “Your Cheating Heart" is especially moving. Chavers' affection for classic country is further explored on Patsy Cline's aching portrait of romantic desperation, “Crazy." Chavers' soulful saxophone cuts deep into the song's plaintive yearning; one can only imagine how his version would've sounded like back in the day, his sax weeping behind the clouds of smoke in a dimly-lit bar.
According to Chavers, it was his mother who encouraged him to play the saxophone; it was a way to escape from a future in poverty. “My mother was instrumental in me starting on the saxophone," Chavers revealed. “She said, because of times being hard, I need something in life to fall back on." Decades later, Chavers is still at it, his love affair with the saxophone not rusting with the passage of time.
As a youth growing up in Waco, Texas, Chavers was enveloped by various styles of music; he absorbed them all. By the time he was 13, Chavers was already jamming in nightclubs. At the time, the local scene was electrified by country, Gospel, blues, and jazz. On Covers the Bases, Chavers offers a glimpse of what that must have been like. Chavers reworks Hank Williams' lovelorn country smash “Your Cheating Heart" into a jazz ballad, his blue-Monday saxophone evoking beer-drenched tears. The instrumental version of “Your Cheating Heart" is especially moving. Chavers' affection for classic country is further explored on Patsy Cline's aching portrait of romantic desperation, “Crazy." Chavers' soulful saxophone cuts deep into the song's plaintive yearning; one can only imagine how his version would've sounded like back in the day, his sax weeping behind the clouds of smoke in a dimly-lit bar.
According to Chavers, it was his mother who encouraged him to play the saxophone; it was a way to escape from a future in poverty. “My mother was instrumental in me starting on the saxophone," Chavers revealed. “She said, because of times being hard, I need something in life to fall back on." Decades later, Chavers is still at it, his love affair with the saxophone not rusting with the passage of time.
