FDL Late Nite: Let’s Talk About Sax

 

I have a pretty wide jazz collection, but my collection includes a very healthy emphasis on the saxophone. 

 

The clip above, with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker, gives you a sense of the musical signatures of these two greats.  

 

The soft ballad is more Hawkins' home turf than it is Parker's, and in this clip, you can hear Hawkins' signature phrasing that sucks you in to an easy, lyrical reverie.  Parker, a bit subdued in the presence of one of his musical role models, nevertheless breaks out into some of his signature flights all around the melody.  Very nice.

 

Let me throw out some other names:  Ben Webster, Sonny Stitt, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, John Coltrane.  They're all in my collection, as well as some more recent artists, like Joe Henderson and Joshua Redman.

 

I recently digitized all my CD's and put everything onto one Ipod, which is nice, because now I can just set the damn thing to shuffle while I'm working, hook it up to speakers, and suddenly, the whole library I've spent years putting together is far more accessible to me than it had ever been before:  more than nine thousand songs.  Hell, I still have a lot of stuff to get that I once had on cassettes and LP's, though I need a bit more fundage to do it.  Maybe someday.

 

Anyway, I love the sax.  Some other Late Nite, maybe I'll focus on the trumpet/cornet or something, and then another night, piano.  

 

Does anyone else out there like sax as much as I do? 

 

If not, what are you into?  How do you get your kicks?