Who's the best saxophonist you've ever heard play live?

John Coltrane
Eric Dolphy
Coleman Hawkins
Ben Webster
Johnny Hodges
Paul Gonsalves
Sonny Rollins
Ornette Coleman
Benny Carter
John Handy
Wayne Shorter
Archie Shepp
Johnny Griffin
Nathan Davis
Cannonball Adderley
+ others I currently can't think of

 

For me has to be Clarence Clemons, although over the years Van Morrison has had some decent players (not bad himself).

 

I'm gonna go with Illinois Jacquet at Sandy's in Beverlt, MA ca. 1980 - with Panama Francis on drums. Incredible.

 

Tenor Sax:
Sonny Rollins
Dewey Redman
Joshua Redman
Michael Brecker
Fat Head Newman
Pee Wee Ellis

 

I’m jealous!

 

I have a duet album if Al Cohn and Zoot and I love the way they play together. It’s almost telepathic. You were lucky to see Al play in person but that’s a sad story.

 

SNL's saxophonist, Lou Marini. (later to be a bit actor in the Blues Brothers movie).

While I was a trombonist enrolled in both orchestra and stage band at Pan American University in Edinburg, TX, Lou played for us in our acoustic designed theater. After his performance I went up on stage to thank him and tell him I enjoyed his performance and his work on SNL. He shook my hand and thanked me. Never saw him play live again.

 

Benny Carter
Stan Getz
Jimmy Giuffre
Zoot Sims
Buddy Tate
Al Cohn

 

the winner!!!

 

Bob Holness

 

Jorja Chalmers (Bryan Ferry)
Mel Collins (King Crimson)

 

Pharoah Sanders
Mike Brecker
Bill Evans
Lenny Pickett

 

Dewey Redman
Pharoh Sanders
Big Jay McNeely
Peter Brotzmann

 

Nice to see Clarence Clemons getting so much love. Pretty sure a whole bunch of the others mentioned could play circles around the Big Man.
But, I don't know that any played with more heart than Clarence. His solos were often the emotional encapsulation of the entire song. That was certainly the case with "Jungleland".

 

Not a lot of sax guys for me. I really enjoyed seeing Ernie Watts in concert with The Stones (as well as with The Tonight Show Band a few times), John Helliwell from Supertramp was pretty good (Famous Last Words tour), Jeff Kashiwa from The Rippingtons was very good and I was a little underwhelmed by Boney James. I don't know if his playing was just ok, or his music was just ok. The only other sax guy I think I've seen in concert was part of David Gilmour's horn section on his About Face tour, but nothing noteworthy to report.

 

When did you see Hodges & Webster?

 

Sonny Rollins
Wayne Shorter
Arthur Blythe
Dexter Gordon
Pharoah Sanders
Rahsaan Roland Kirk

There's probably a bunch more that I can't think of right now.

 

To be honest most of the bands I have seen live don't have Sax players so my choice was a bit limited.

I have seen Van Morrison a few times and he usually has great sax players, but not sure who was actually playing rach time.

Either way though, Clarence soloing on something like Jungleland always hits the spot for me even if others are technically better players.

 

I suppose I haven't seen that many of really great jazz players mentioned here - theres just not a lot of opportunity here in North Carolina. David Sanborn was probably the best I have seen (when Hiram Bullock was in his band), and I agree about the Clarence Clemons comments in terms of his ability to have an emotional impact on a song - he was one of the major elements in Springsteen shows making a real statement when you saw them, and having the experience stick with you for a while afterwords. Not replaceable.

 

Tineke Postma. Sadly I missed a lot of great players from the past.

 

Didier Malherbe Gong Gong Gong

 

Pee Wee Ellis formerly of James Brown’s band has toured with Van quite a bit. He’s a great tenor man. And of course the lovely Candy Dulfer on alto is very accomplished and she’s toured with Van.

I believe both Van Morrison and David Bowie first started out playing sax. Van still blows alto some times.

 

I mentioned it before, but I totally agree -- Gary Thomas is phenomenal. Easily one of the top-5 tenor-players I've ever heard.

He's based in Baltimore (his hometown), and has mostly been teaching at the university-level for most of the last 15(?) years, give or take.

Unfortunately he hasn't recorded much (other than a handful of sideman appearances), but I've heard him live here in the DC area about 6 times in the last 7 years (always as a sideman on someone else's gig). Simply a monster player.

 

Michael Brecker back in 1991

 

My brother took me several times to see Tim Eyermann in and around D.C in the mid to late '70's. Absolutely phenomenal, he and his band.