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What is your all-time top sax ballad?


mikeweil

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Was listening to Lester Young quite often these days, and find his rendition of I Can't Get Started" from 1942 is the saxophone ballad that moves me the most.

Now what is your all-time favourite saxophone ballad interpretation for the desert island? Only one please, yes, just one .... I know it's hard, but try and do your best.

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"Beatrice" - every version by Sam Rivers, and he's done it a number of times. My favorite is probably the original on "Fuschia Swing Song", but he also does a wonderful version backed by a guitar trio on 1989's "Lazuli" on Timeless. (Also, Joe Henderson's treatment of it on "State of the Tenor...".)

Second place (for me) might go to Joe Henderson's "Black Narcissus", which is also a seriously beautiful tune. I probably like the orignial best, on Joe's "Power to the People" on Milestone, but the big-band version Joe did for Verve is pretty amazing too.

Anyone concur with either of these choices???

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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Booker Ervin does a very nice I Can't Get Started on The Space Book.

Not sure what my favorite is. I do like Everything Happens To Me a lot. Great version on Ed Blackwell's Walls~Bridges with Dewey Redman on tenor. Also a very good one on NY Art Quartet Mohawk w/John Tchicai.

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Blood Count, written by Billy Strayhorn. Although Johnny Hodges's treatment of this wonderful ballad is great, I give a nod to Stan Getz's version on Pure Getz. It proves that a ballad doesn't have to be quiet and nice, but instead can run the gamut of emotions from sorrowful to defiant or jubilare.

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"Beatrice" - every version by Sam Rivers, and he's done it a number of times. My favorite is probably the original on "Fuschia Swing Song", but he also does a wonderful version backed by a guitar trio on 1989's "Lazuli" on Timeless. (Also, Joe Henderson's treatment of it on "State of the Tenor...".)

Second place (for me) might go to Joe Henderson's "Black Narcissus", which is also a seriously beautiful tune. I probably like the orignial best, on Joe's "Power to the People" on Milestone, but the big-band version Joe did for Verve is pretty amazing too.

Anyone concur with either of these choices???

"Black Narcissus" is a beautiful tune as are many other Joe Henderson compositions. I also like "Step Lightly" and "Shade of Jade."

"I Can't Get Started" is an alltime favorite as well, though I can't get past Clifford Brown's version. My vote goes for Clifford's version of the tune. Does anyone else have this tune on his "West Coast Jazz?" Awesome!

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Well, no one "favorite" here, but anybody who hasn't heard Eddie Harris' version of "A Nightengale Sang In Berkely Square" is missing a real gem of a performance!

which album ?

never heard it

THE TENDER STORM

I got it on that 32Jazz (THOSE guys again!) 4-on-2 set GREATER THAN THE SUM OF HIS PARTS. WELL worth the hunt!

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The bandwagon's getting crowded: "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" from Go was also the first thing that popped into my head. Why should I let the fact that a billion other people chose it stop me?

(Close second choice: the Ellington/Cotrane "In A Sentimental Mood," also mentioned already.)

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