Jazz Alto & Tenor Saxophone

THE SAXOPHONE IN JAZZ

To many people the saxophone is synonymous with jazz. If it hadn’t been for jazz, would the saxophone have survived? It was invented by a Belgian in 1841, and it never really caught on as a symphony instrument, possibly due to the unpopularity of Mr. Sax amongst the right circles. The saxophone featured very little in early jazz, strangely enough the first significant jazz saxophonists did not play the what are today’s most popular size instruments, the alto or tenor: one of it’s first outings was as a bass instrument in the Goofus Five - played by Adrian Rollini (one of whose instruments is currently five feet away from me as I write this), the other is Sidney Bechet who played soprano saxophone.

The range of the soprano naturally provided an alternative to the role played by the clarinet in dixieland jazz, but very soon there arrived on the scene a tenor player whose enormous sound and dexterity is still held in awe by saxophonists today: Coleman Hawkins. the rest is,as they say, history. After Hawkins, there have been several other innovative saxophone players of note: Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy. Since the 1960s, although there have been some amazing breakthroughs in technique by players such as Michael Brecker, it is hard to name a truly innovative mainstream jazz saxophone player stylistically, although if you include jazz fusion, funk and smooth jazz, perhaps the names Wayne Shorter, Jan Garbarek and King Curtis should be added.

I shall be adding to this page week by week, featuring some of the great saxophone players who have influenced me - a sort of saxophonist of the week page.

Ornette Coleman

One of the great jazz innovators, Ornette Coleman paid his dues in the rhythm and blues bands of the south, but along with John Coltrane, his name is synonymous with Free Form, a new style of jazz that became prominent in the 60s.

His 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come was the most radical innovation in jazz since Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie burst on the scene with bebop. Ornette did away with conventional chord structures and often the restrictions of barlines. Unlike Miles Davis’ modal jazz, Ornette was not even restricted by a mode or scale, he allowed his improvisations to go anywhere, confined only to the feelof the tune.

His style was a strong influence on John Coltrane but developed very differently: Ornette used the freedom from traditional harmony and rhythm to explore a more melodic but very extreme approach to jazz, which still often tipped its hat to his gutbucket R &B roots. He caused as big a stir amongst many of the bebop fans as bebop did amongst the traditionalists due to his disregard of traditional structure, sometimes quirky intonation and unusual tone, the latter partly due to his choice of instrument - the English made Grafton acrylic alto.

It was Ornette Coleman that first turned me on to jazz, until I heard him on a Radio 3 programme I had only ever heard traditional jazz which of course I hated because my parents liked it. Still playing and innovating today, his classic period for me is when he had the quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.