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

But there was another Saxophonist Bill Evans - the great pre wahabbism Yusef Lateef!

 

Right, forgot about him. Always liked his flute playing.

 

Paul Desmond

 

Sonny Rollins.

 

Sonny Rollins - I stood about 5 feet away when I did monitors for the Pitt Jazz Fest back in the 1980's. It was at the Carnegie Library Music Hall in Pittsburgh.

Just amazing....

He and I were stage right... I recall Peter Erskine being there; in 2002 I mentioned it to him on his forum:
From the wayback machine
Peter Erskine Forum: PItt Jazz way back when

By wayne mitzen on Thursday, November 28, 2002 - 09:36
pm: Edit Post
I was the monitor guy at the Pitt Jazz thingy back in the late 80's/early 90's at
Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. I think it was one of the shows with Grover or
maybe one with Sonny Rollins. Anyway, I remember you setting up a brandy
new Yamaha Kit - right out of the box from the local music store.
Anyone reading this - most kits are a nightmare to mic - let alone a new
shiny, not-so-in-tune kit. Mr. PE came in and just blew me away. Set the kit
up in no time, tuned it perfectly. I recall mentioning this to you as I was
bitchin under my breath 'bout how loud Nathan (Davis - Pitt Music dean at the
time) had the band/monitors.
All I can say is - wow. PE's a real pro. Being a bassist I saw the comments
concerning WR/Jaco. I'll bet Jaco felt that too. It's obvious in the tracks...
I remember this as the new band I'm in had a drummer just get a new Yam
kit. First day was a bit rough but to his credit, got it tuned/setup by the next
gig.
Again I have to say, it was a real pleasure working that show...

By Peter Erskine on Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 08:47
am: Edit Post
Wayne,
Memory Lane! THAT was an incredible gig: Ron Carter on bass, Cedar Walton
on piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Emily Remler on guitar, Nathan Davis
— hosting and playing saxophone — and SONNY ROLLINS on tenor!
I remember playing a good part of the set with my mouth open and jaw
half-dropped to the floor. Glad to hear from you that the drumming was okay
...!
That gig was in the early 1980's ... time flies.

Greetings from California, and my best regards to you and all of my musical
friends back in Pittsburgh.
Thanks for the memories ... (as well as for the nice words!)
Peter Erskine


I also recall Peter mentioned to Nathan to turn everything down... the stage was silly loud.

I also recall after rehearsal, I had killed all the sub mixes on-stage, but the house guy still had the mains up. Sonny pulled the cable on the lavalier mic on his horn - it was a clip on condenser that used 48V phantom. When you do that it pops loud... So I saw the look on his face and I mentioned, "It's OK... the house guy should have had the mains down..."

So later, at the shows intermission, he's standing nest to the light board in the cove that's also stage right... they're inducting him into the U 0f Pitt Jazz hall of fame. Place is packed, as they mention his name immediate standing ovation.

I walk up and state, "you're on... and you're just amazing..."

He looks at me all sheepishly and states, "I'll wait next time to pull the mic cable out..."

I was floored... I'm thinking " this guys probably the greatest sax [player if not musician I've ever worked with, there's thunderous applause, and this guys worried about our mains cabinets?"

I mentioned, " you can pop our mains anytime you want..."

Another interesting thing about that rehearsal - I recall Ron Carter wasn't there. I heard Nathan on the call to him at his hotel:

"Ron... what ya doin'"

"Sleepin"....

He shows up 15 minutes before curtain, walks on the stage. I go up to him, he asks, "What do I got for an amp..."

Being a bassist, I recalled back a few years there was a Bass Player mag that he was in an add for the Polytone 101 amps.

"This.. I said..." pointing to it... "... you endorse these..."

He wasn't real thrilled... So he cranks the lows, and plugs in.

Neither he nor Sonny had lead sheets - they just wailed.

I recall Ron - with a packed house; recall these music halls the balconies seem like they're right in your face when you're on stage - stops in the middle of his solo, tunes up a bit more, and goes on like nothing happened.

Balls of steel... just amazing to be on a stage with that caliber of talent.

Oh - and Freddie's a trip... and as to the drumming... my God...

 

Wayne Shorter
Charles Lloyd
Maceo Parker

 

My fav is either Pharaoh Sanders or Wayne Shorter

Some would argue that Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman are better

I have also seen George Coleman, Dave Liebman, Kenny Garrett, David Murray, Houston Person and Branford Marsalis, all of whom are top notch.

On the more out there end of the spectrum I have seen John Zorn and Charles Gayle, but they are a little extreme for my taste.

In the Funk space my fav I have seen (at least a dozen times) is Maceo Parker, and I have also seen Pee Wee Ellis and Karl Denson who are top notch.

Rock players dont really enter the discussion for me, though I lead a rock band that includes a sax player. Bobby Keyes, Michael Brecker and Clarence Clemons are the best rock players I have seen.

 

Stan Getz back in the '80s. Started my appreciation for jazz.

 

At the time of playing i would say either Joshua Redman or James Carter.......i have seen Wayne Shorter and other legends, but they were past their prime by the time i saw them in terms of chops......The stuff i have seen Redman and Carter do has been mind blowing....

 

Speaking of rock - I think Zorn did some of the sax parts on Mr Bungle... Love is a Fist I believe.

 

Sonny Rollins, not even close. He's in a class by himself.

 

I saw Wayne Shorter with Herbie Hancock in 2000 in New Jersey

 

1.King Curtis (1968)
2.Pee Wee Ellis (1970, 1971 & 1973)
3."Fathead" Newman...60s & 70s
4.Big Jay McNeely (1985)
5.Bobby Keyes (1970s)
6.Carlos Garnett (1972)...w / Miles Davis
7.Wayne Shorter (1970s)...w / Miles Davis

 

Bobby keys

 

Sadly, Nathan passed away last year(April, 2018). He had retired from PITT in 2013. I took his History of Jazz Course, which was informative & entertaining. I asked Professor Davis, "Yo Nathan, how about a Field Trip for the Class?". He replied, "You want a Field Trip? I'll Give you a Field Trip. Go drive to a Record Store and buy one of my Albums.".

Anyways, anyone who took his History of Jazz Course learned that XXX(Triple X) had a completely different meaning, than what one usually associates with XXX. It meant what he is about to say is Really Important. X being Important, XX being Very Important and XXX meant, that 'This Material will probably be on the Midterm or Final Exam' Important(especially when he prefaced a part of the Class Lecture with "Triple Triple Triple X").

PITT is fortunate to have had Nathan Davis being a Great Jazz Musician & Teacher Develop and Lead the Jazz Studies Program in their Music Department. His Jazz Seminar Week Event each year with Workshops that ended with a Concert was impressive because Nathan had so many Friends, who are Great Jazz Musicians, that every year seemed to have at least few Well Known Names in Jazz participating in the Week Long Jazz Seminar Event that Nathan created and organized.

Nathan also helped create the William Pitt Union’s International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame, the William Russell Robinson Recording Studio, the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives and the Pitt Jazz Ensemble.

Maybe Statues at Universities should be reserved for people in the Medical Field, like Dr. Thomas Starzl, whose career at PITT included multiple innovations in surgery and immunology changed the face of modern medicine and added a new dimension to the practice of medicine by inventing or improving experimental organ transplant operations and ultimately making these procedures broadly applicable in humans and Dr. Jonas Salk, who while at PITT developed a Vaccine to Cure Polio(No Statue, but a Medical Building was named for him).

Although, while Music is not Life Saving(although I would contend that Music can have a benefit to one's Health on a Mental/Emotional Level, if not a benefit to one's Bank Account as a Consumer myself), it would be Awesome if PITT ever decides to have a Statue Made for Nathan Davis playing his Saxphone. At the very least PITT should name the Music Building after him.

H2P!
RIP-Nathan Davis(1937-2018)

 

Saw Pharoah Sanders with Alice Coltrane. Never could stand his playing.

Saw Sonny Rollins when he had a bagpiper in the group. Ehhh...

 

I'll go with Zoot Sims.

 

I've read the whole first page and no one has mentioned JUNIOR WALKER for some insane reason! How is that possible? I actually had to go back and re-read the name of the topic, thinking maybe it wasn't about saxophone players at all!!!! I saw him twice at the Apollo. And by the way, no one mentioned King Curtis either. Or David Fathead Newman. But, for heaven's sake, people, JUNIOR WALKER and the ALLSTARS!

 

Manu Dibango
Tommy McCook
Dean Fraser

 

Wow - thanks for letting me know... I was wondering if he was still teaching.

The sound company I worked for (CZ Sound) did a lot of stuff with him at various venues in Pittsburgh. He was more of a soprano sax guy if I recall. Never really saw him play anything else.

As I mentioned he loved it loud - we named a unit of SPL after him - 1 Nathan was 120 dB.

Yea, I recall one other Pitt Jazz Fest gig where he had Grover Washington Jr. Patrice Rushen on piano and the first year they had electronic keyboards - some kid with two DX-7's and TX-7 modules.

I was asked to do a 1/2" 8tk so I'm stage left in the cove sitting on the floor against the wall - the band's running thru some stuff.

So I'm sitting there and Grover's manager at the time, Paul Silverhorn, and he asks why I don't sit at the console with my hands on the faders.

You always see a lot of sound guys that sit there with their hands on the faders... not sure why they do that. Either ego ("Look at me... I'm in control") or their paranoid 'cause they're afraid of it going south since they really don't understand things like gain staging and gain-before-feedback. I dunno... that +/- 1/10 of dB they seem to move the fader to doesn't do much and if they do more than that, it's really annoying - the performers and their interaction should be controlling the dynamics - not me. One famous tune is mixed that way and I fixed that crap (see the comparison vid - Remix of WLL ).

So I state, "I get them their mix, they ask for this and that, and once they start, it's in their hands - not mine. And if they're real good, it's in a lot higher power's hands than even theirs..."

"And you get blamed for their f-ups..." I add. Right then there's this hideous "Bwahhhh" low end thing. Bands stops. Paul looks at me with that cockeyed, questioning dog look.

I remember Nathan, with his soprano sax under his arm, walks to were he can peer around the curtains of the cove; looks at me, and say's "You hear that?"

I look at this kid playing the DX7's. "What did you just play?"

"You mean this?" says the kid, comping chords with his right hand. "No, the other hand..." I ask. "Bwahhh"

"Uh, Nathan...." I stammer, " ...you can't just take these head arrangements and introduce a lot improv with this newer electronic stuff - it has a lot higher RMS level than most traditional instruments... it just kills the dynamics."

He nods and gets it.

Right before the show we're in the backstage stairwell and he says "...and yea man I got that kid not do that low end stuff..."

I mean don't get me wrong - as Quincy Jones states in the forward to Temples of Sound it's all of the human elements that make it work. But you have to know that when the magic occurs it's usually in spite of, not because of. Just like love and hate - you love in spite of, hate because of.

And as stated in one of my favorite Futurama episodes:
"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
~~ God, in Futurama episode "Godfellas"

 

Speaking of Grover - just amazing to be on stage with. I recall one of the Pitt Jazz things that after rehearsal, I was walking around Carnegie, and everyone left - Nathan and crew. A few students were still there.

I hear a soprano sax - figured it was one of the kids...

I go backstage and there's Grover - with his wife or girlfriend turning pages - practicing.

"That's why you're Grover Washington Jr... so amazing..." He just laughs...

 

Steve Marcus with the Buddy Rich Big Band - 1984

 

I got to meet Grover Washington Jr as a kid, and had a Cassette Tape from my Dad, that I had him sign. Pretty sure the Album was 'Come Morning' or something similar. Anyways, I need to dig it out but think he signed it 'Peace' along with his name. I recall as a kid that he played the National Anthem for 76ers NBA Playoff Games in the mid 1980s. Ironically, I just bought the Audio Fidelity SACD for his Album, 'Winelight' mastered by Kevin Grey. It cost a lot of money, as one if the harder to find AF Titles, but was another Cassette Tape my Dad owned and gave to me, so had some good memories..

By any chance when you worked in Pittsburgh with CZ Sound did you ever meet Walt Harper? He was a well known Jazz Musician(think was a Piano Player) in Pittsburgh and had a Jazz Club downtown. I think he also passed away. I got to meet him once, and he was a Super Nice Guy. I heard that George Benson was from Pittsburgh. A lot of Jazz History in that City.

 

Al Garth

 

Not sure if we did Harper, tho I think we may have as part of some festival (Regatta, 4th, etc...). I do recall a story of George Benson going to another place I worked at - Opus One - as a kid. I'm not sure who the tech was at the time, but the story was that George and his dad came in and mentioned something about needing an amp. The story I heard was that the tech took an old KLH amp and made one for him. Phil - one of the sales guys that worked there with me - is on this list. Maybe he'll chime in on that story.

Yea, Pittsburgh has had some great players come from there...