In Parkers wake came a raft of virtuoso jazz saxophonists during the 50s, including tenor heavyweights Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane, all of whom took saxophone playing to new, higher, levels of artistry while pushing jazz ever forwards. Glad to see Yusef Lateef and Pharoah Sanders on here too. When he entered high school he failed at his first attempt to get into the jazz band but auditioned again the following year and earned first chair. Agreed- Chris Potter is one of my faves. A prolific purple patch at the Impulse! His florid, effusive style was often likened to sheets of sound. Coltranes music was always evolving and progressed from hard bop through to modal, spiritual jazz, and the avant-garde. Who? Kenni was voted "Best Tenor Sax Player" by Twin Cities Reader magazine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa99q-vq4bI&list=OLAK5uy_k7M-0PcT5vtPSusxNDlUYOkkVOJEwZ5vM&index=10. Putting Gato Barbieri at 50 is a crime EUROPA is the sexiest song ever played on a sax. Is alto or tenor sax better? Hmm? Everyone has there personal favorites of course, but if you truly know jazz, than this list is the Canon of Sax platers. And his own album Jewel in the Lotus is an underrated masterpiece. Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. Marshall Allen? THANK YOU, Paul Desmond should have easily made the top 10!! Though originating in Philadelphia, Getz became the pre-eminent tenor saxophonist of the US West Coast cool school scene of the 50s. Louis Armstrong is widely seen as the greatest jazz musician of all time for his virtuoso trumpet playing and singing. Kenny Cohen. I know some say hes not jazz. Save Share. His first holiday album, Miracles, sold over 13 million copies, making it the most successful Christmas album to date. 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NEW ORLEANS. While Kenny G surely has great technical ability, calling him the best saxophonist ever is highly debatable. My AUTUMN IN MUSKOKA should really be called AUTUMN IN HEAVEN!! A list like this is always highly debatable and a matter of personal taste. [6] Also in 2012, Grammy nominations for Seeds from the Underground followed in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo categories,[4] and Seeds From The Underground received a NAACP Image Award nomination in the Outstanding Jazz Album category. He played on a raft of pop and rock sessions in the 70s (for everyone from Steely Dan to Art Garfunkel), as well as co-leading the funky Brecker Brothers Band with his younger sibling, Randy. All 3 were very unique, avant-guarde musicians and saxophonists who changed and expanded the role of jazz sax. But the painful ugliness of the sound he made on 4 different occasions was enough to detract from the beauties of A Love Supreme, the ingenious harmonic revisions of Giant Steps, and the multiphonics in the cadenza of his favorite tune, I Want to Talk About You (played on practically every Coltrane session I attended). Paul Gonsalves? His solo on Bye, Bye Blackbird, on which he doubles the number of choruses by Miles, is at once beautiful beyond words yet heartbreakingly sad when he offers the prize to an indifferent boss (Miles never spoke an encouraging word to him). It wasnt actually the listeners who walked out on John, but John who, perhaps for some understandable reason of his own, walked out on the music, his supporters, and his seminal role in a beautiful African-American art form. Cohns signature was a bright but full-bodied saxophone tone out of which he poured rivulets of mellifluous melody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQUq6IHlRvE. It cant simply be that millions of people are just stupid and Pat Metheny is the smart one, says Jason King, a musician and scholar at New York University. I dont think Trane himself would have put himself at number two either way. Or Pete Christlieb or Phil Woods? These lists are worthless and worthy of simply being ignored. Metheny stated that the "controversy" that has surrounded Kenny G "among musicians and serious listeners" is due to the fact that "he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years". Insert Quotes Quotes Post Reply. I am glad (as much as I am surprised) to see Hank Mobley, one of my favourite, scoring so high. The center of the documentary, though, is Kenny G himself. I went to school with Richard at York University and have seen him numerous times at the Jazz Fest in Waterloo, Ontario. I saw him play in Kitchener, Ontario in the 1970s. Frank Trumbauer? But is What a Wonderful World, one of his biggest hits, jazz? Yeah, forget the contributions of Adrian Rollini, Jimmy Dorsey, and Frank Trumbauer. Biography [ edit] Some dismiss that sound as easy listening, but Kenny G seems nonplussed by the label. The list is a joke, indeed. Kenny G refrains from labeling his own music. After that he recorded for Blue Note, moving from an advanced hard-bop style that later edged towards the avant-garde. CANDY DULFER is the sexiest person to ever play the sax and can outplay this entire list. Desmond is to the saxophone as what Guaraldi is to the piano, nice within a very specific context/aesthetic- once you get out of that aesthetic everything else is meh. From the 70s onwards, Barbieri leaned towards smooth jazz settings for his music, though his brooding tenor saxophone never lost its visceral intensity. Lee Morgan rated well on the trumpet list tooon records they are on together I think of Mobley and Morgan as The Dream Team. A member of the trailblazing Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, this Texas tenor titan was at the birth of hard bop in the early 50s and later based himself in Los Angeles, where he offered a more vigorous alternative to the West Coasts omnipresent cool sound. Though in the early 70s Bartzs style gravitated to a more exploratory kind of jazz, his records became smoother and funkier as the decade progressed. You should check out TINA S on youtube. Here is playing Spiderman with guitarist KEITH MURCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt0MTuTvPFc. Theres a few on this list I would trade out for James Carter. I didnt know who Steve Lacy and Teddy Edwards were ten years ago, and Im still learning. Kenny G is widely known in the world for his smooth music and saxophone jazz tunes. [7] In 2013, Garrett won an Echo Award in the Saxophonist of the Year category. I remember transcribing and playing WINELIGHT as well as the saxophone solo. Whats funny is that Tex Beneke of the Glenn Miller band won most of the jazz magazine polls. MANY MUSICIANS HERE HAVE TOLD ME THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST SAX AND CLAIRENT PLAYERS THAT THEY HAVE EVER HEARD. Coltrane rewrote the book on tenor saxophone playing and also helped to popularize the soprano version of the instrument. [51] Saxophonist, composer and bandleader Branford Marsalis, stating that he's refusing to "fight that silly war between jazz and smooth jazz," called on G's critics as follows: "When all these jazz guys get in a tizzy over Kenny G, they need to leave Kenny alone. Seriously, no James Carter? The greatest 8, were, and I should know, for look at my email which is not a joke, it is because I play like Jaws, Jaws, Ben, Griffin, Dexter, Zoot, Jacquet, Rabbit, Cannonball, Joe Lovano It includes covers such as Careless Whisper, and Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", a collaboration with Richard Marx. I have played EUROPA (Carlos Santana-right?) The saxophone, like the trumpet, remains an iconic instrument in jazz, and one that, through its indelible musical associations, has become totally synonymous with the genre. . I like most of the players listed, and regret some omissions. Like so many jazz musicians that worked in the 50s including many of the best jazz saxophonists of the era Peppers career was blighted with drug addiction. God rest his soul, Great Bob the powerful Saxophonist of this last 40 yrs, Ornette Coleman and Booker Ervin two big omissions. It explores racial prejudice and the art vs. commerce debate, and offers some lessons on what it takes for someone to be successful in any field. While my Father never liked the term smooth jazz, he played everything from be-bop to pop to fusion to r&b to soul to gospel and then some. Soon after, he made his first recordings and caught the ear with his reedy soprano blowing, which had a tremulous vibrato and emotional intensity. As for the excellence of Sonny Stitt, his qualifications should be immediately clear to anyone attentive to his battle with Rollins on The Eternal Triangle.. Her live version of Pick Up The Pieces is the best anywhere. U was glad the jug, Gene Ammons squeaked into the top 25. He played in many big bands (including those of Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich) and was always conducive to working on collaborative projects with other saxophonists. He has created his own line of saxophones called "Kenny G Saxophones". [2] Garrett's music sometimes exhibits Asian influences, an aspect which is especially prevalent in his 2006 Grammy-nominated recording Beyond the Wall. No Grover Washington Jr? 2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1987. I miss the likes of Vido Musso, James Moody, Oliver Nelson, Tina Brooks, Charlie Rouse, to name a few. Hendersons tenor sound was unmistakable: loud, robust, and virile. I worked with him in a couple different groups when we were both living in Cleveland, and. Like many of the best jazz saxophonists, Lands brooding tenor sound, with its intense level of expression, was indebted to Coltrane. [10] His debut studio album, Kenny G, was recorded in 1981 with members of the Jeff Lorber Fusion, and released in the following year. Also, repeating he copied bird shouldnt be synonymous with his name. Originally from Ohio, Henderson first made his mark as an exponent of hard bop at Blue Note in the early 60s, and also recorded with Horace Silver (its Hendersons solo you can hear on Silvers Song For My Father). In terms of virtuosity? Nicknamed Bean or Hawk, this influential Missouri-born tenor saxophonist was crucial to the development of the saxophone as a viable solo instrument. He was, though, a superb tenor saxophonist who was at home with both hard bop, modal jazz, and R&B, and easily earns his place among the worlds best jazz saxophonists. In 1968 he started playing the soprano sax and formed the well known jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1970, only leaving in 1985. The leader and one funky saxaphone player from THE SHUFFLE DEMONS! "[54] Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson expressed "mixed feelings," stating that Kenny G's "audience probably does not know Armstrong or Getz or Charlie Parker. But this ranked list leaves a lot to be desired, Woods easily eclipses the likes of Ornette Coleman and Hank Crawford, while the high rankings of Earl Bostic (not really a jazz specialist) and Ike Quebec is puzzling. His primary instruments are alto and soprano saxophone and flute. They [critics] think I just decided to play these songs because I knew they would sell well. I will just say my top three (all in the top 6 here), definitely in this order: 1) Sonny Rollins I personally thank your father for his innovation and influence, and Im pretty sure HE had some Coltrane influence (I hear it in his riffs) and took it to a different place. When youre talking about art, which is what creating music is, it is subjective, and between the ears and eyes of the beholder, and so all opinions are uniquely different. Kenny G - he's the most commercially successful sax player of all time, so of course, folks are going to hate on him. In addition to the pictured Blue Note album, be sure to check him out on MIles Davis at the Blackhawk, Friday and Saturday nights on the Columbia label. But any sax player selling something like 100 million discs is not a bad thing for all the other sax players. "[57] Richard Brody, in a New Yorker report, cited Kenny G in the film responding "cheerful[ly]" to a question about what he loves about music, with, "I dont know if I love music that much," and continuing, "when I listen to music, I think about the musicians and I just think about what it takes to make that music and how much they had to practice. I came here to say just that. JOHN TANK?! He was born Kenneth Bruce Gorelick in Seattle, Washington, a quiet Jewish kid who was expected to take over his fathers plumbing business one day. Topping the list of the best jazz saxophonists ever is the man fans referred to simply as Bird. His latest release, New Standards, the title of his 19th studio album, fifth for Concord Records and first since 2015's Brazilian Nights, could well be used to describe his four-decade body of work, a vision of jazz that helped launch both a musical genre and radio format. It's a completely different audience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADi67_LEno. An option could be to rate a given musicians influence on their instrument and / or the music how many players on this list are disciples of Bird, Coltrane, Prez, etc. After 1965 Hank tried to please the Blue Note owners by composing and recording hitswhich most sounded forced, weak, and wooden. It's the way record companies automatically put up-and-coming instrumentalists (especially horn players) in the JAZZ category. He was also the first person in the world to play the same note twice in a row. Jacob Uitti But those who are moved in the now tend to ignore that. [48], Since 1989, Kenny G's recording "Going Home" from the Kenny G Live album has become an unconventional mega-hit throughout China: It has become the unofficial national closing song for many businesses such as food courts, outdoor markets, health clubs, shopping malls and train stations throughout the country. [33][34][35][36], In February 2017, Kenny G was satirized by Andy Samberg in the Netflix program "Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special". I count four saxophonists from the pre-swing era, although you bootlickers probably fap off to that meandering shit thats been known as jazz for the past seventy years. The sound of Kenny G's saxophone is as iconic as his curly coif; indeed, both are instantly recognizable. The song "Theme for Dying Young", written for that movie, was nominated for the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Joe Henderson was probably THE Hard bop/ Blue note Saxophonist of the 60s, no one really came close to him during that period not even Coltrane. Though Dolphy died at a relatively young age (he was 36 when he tragically succumbed to a fatal diabetic coma), the reverberations from his pathfinding music can still be felt today. They should definitely expand this list to TOP 100! It's not like some guy says, 'You know, I used to listen to Miles, Trane and Ornette. Great to see Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin and Jackie McLean so highly thought of (3 of my particular favourites often overlooked). His music has been described as bland and soporific like an aural hit of Ambien. He does a great version of YOU MUST BELIEVE IN SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love Lovano, but on a given day, Id rather hear Chris Potter, Joshua Redman or David Sanchez. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 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Saxophonists ever is highly debatable and a matter of personal taste called AUTUMN in MUSKOKA should really be called in... Jimmy Dorsey, and regret some omissions crime EUROPA is the man referred! Worthless and worthy of simply being ignored Morgan as the Dream Team,. Was voted & quot ; best tenor sax player & quot ; by Cities! A couple different groups when we were both living in Cleveland, and Frank Trumbauer?... Top 25 the saxophone as a viable solo instrument role of jazz sax player! Soul, great Bob the powerful saxophonist of this last 40 yrs, Ornette Coleman and Ervin!
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