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Who's your favorite Alto Sax Player?


Ibuchreitz

  

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When I played, it was Jackie McLean's sound and conception that was the strongest voice in my ear, but the list of favorites is long and varied: Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Frank Strozier, Sonny Stitt (at his most inspired), late Art Pepper, early Charlie Mariano, Charles McPherson (the way he plays today), also with great appreciation for Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Lyons, Sonny Redd, Roscoe Mitchell, Arthur Blythe, some Lee Konitz, as lead players in a section: Marshall Royal and Jerome Richardson) ... many others

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All of my favorites have been named, but I did want to put in anther mention of Art Pepper. The sound he gets on the Contemporaries is just fantastic. I like the looseness of his improvising (i'm not a musician, so I don't know how else to describe it). Plus, I like where he ended up in his later recordings, with more expressiveness, such as the Vanguard recordings. He also did what I think is one of the best albums with strings, which is "Winter Moon," if I remember correctly. Love the guy.

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Ornette, Dolphy, Dudu Pukwana, Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Mike Osborne, Jimmy Lyons, Jackie McLean, Bird, Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe. I just realized that that's a really acute modernist/postmodernist bent but, hey, whatever... I think there's another list for altos who have intermittently blown my mind but not in any sort of career spanning way (Ernie Henry, Michael Sessions, Hodges, Cannonball, Konitz, etc.)

Oh--and say what you will about James Spaulding--he kills it with Charles Tolliver and on the handful of prime Blue Notes (Solid, Components) that suit his vocalistic modal bent.

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Very glad to see Dudu Pukwana appear on a couple of your lists.

I've probably listened to more Jackie McLean than any other alto player, but, end of the day, I have to go with Art Pepper -- for the emotional qualities in his playing, for the risks he was always willing to take, and for the simple "intrigue" factor. Konitz is high up there for many of the same reasons.

Also near the top of the list: Julius Hemphill; Bird; Ornette; and Anthony Braxton and Henry Thredgill, both of whom I think of as primarily alto players.

PS -- not a favorite per se, but I've always really enjoyed Carlos Ward's playing, with Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim and others.

Edited by Joe
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