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R&B Tenor Sax Cats


paul secor

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anyway... listening to 1951 now-- my birth year!!

I Got Loaded

You'll get no argument from me that Bear does a better job - I love their Sun boxes - and I have a ton of Ace comps. I find it interesting that Bear sounds a bit defensive in that link, but good for them: they do good work.

Great link. I've got many of those tunes on other comps (non-Proper ones btw ;) ), but I think I needs to get me a few of those...

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Getting back to the subject at hand, let me recommend one of my favorite box sets of all time. Not a lot of "jazz" on it, but if you like your pianos plinky, your saxes honkin', and if you aren't afraid of early rock n roll, seek out this astounding treat...

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&t...10:8vj4eal14xh7

Art Rupe's Specialty Records may be my numero uno favorite indie label of them all.

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Wardell Gray cut a few of these sides (with Little Willie Littlefield, Ivory Joe Hunter and I forget who-all else.) Frankly, they're disappointing - as much as I love WG. And not surprisingly. Wardell's tone and approach were just too light for this setting.

Love those old Saxophonograph LPs. Wish I had one with me. And a turntable. and a phono preamp.

Red Prysock, Griff, Cleanhead (alto), Big Jay, Jug, Gator, T, Arnett, Harold Vick...even Sonny Stitt. And who was the cat who cut a couple of albums for Blue Note? (Drawing a blank. )

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Another couple of compilations to watch for are on the West Side label from England: Groove Station, Saxblasters vol1, and Ttitanic and 23 Other Unsinkable Saxblasters. Each comp has 24 cuts with Sil Austin, Al Sears, Paul Williams,Preston Love, Jesse Powell and many more. Decent notes although short on discographical info.

Hey Clem, thanks for the link to the Bear Family discs. And Harold, thanks for the feedback on The Thinman Returns.

I picked up a Jimmy Forrest 45 on the Triumph label a long time ago. Anybody recommend any cd issues for Jimmy Forrest in the RnB vein? Also, have a King Curtis 45 of Wicky Wacky Parts 1 & 2 (features a great guitar solo in addtion to King Curtis). Anybody know if that's been on cd?

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Another couple of compilations to watch for are on the West Side label from England: Groove Station, Saxblasters vol1, and Ttitanic and 23 Other Unsinkable Saxblasters. Each comp has 24 cuts with Sil Austin, Al Sears, Paul Williams,Preston Love, Jesse Powell and many more. Decent notes although short on discographical info.

Hey Clem, thanks for the link to the Bear Family discs. And Harold, thanks for the feedback on The Thinman Returns.

I picked up a Jimmy Forrest 45 on the Triumph label a long time ago. Anybody recommend any cd issues for Jimmy Forrest in the RnB vein? Also, have a King Curtis 45 of Wicky Wacky Parts 1 & 2 (features a great guitar solo in addtion to King Curtis). Anybody know if that's been on cd?

Tom - I have Groove Station - Saxblasters Vol. 1 and second your recommendation.

Delmark has a classic Jimmy Forrest CD - Night train (Delmark 435) - which includes the classic title tune and "Bolo Blues", which should be just as well known as "Night Train".

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Oh man so many great players mentioned here!!! Does anybody know the guy(s) who soloed on the Wynonie Harris records? One song in paticular "Quiet Whiskey" comes to mind. Whoever took that solo was really wailing!!!!

Yeah, that's my favourite, too - didn't ya read my post above? ;)

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Lee Allen freakin' SHINES on this puppy:

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And a big YES to Butera. He was seriously into this bag long before it was "fashionable". Check out his tenor battle w/Ray Abrams on this one:

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Butera w/Prima is sometimes a cliche thing, but there's enough there to let you know the cat could play (e.g. - his first chorus on "Shiek Of Araby").

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Ben Webster - r&b soloist?

Yep. Check out his playing on Little Esther's "Aged and Mellow Blues" and on Johnny Otis' "One Nighter Blues". It's Ben doing his thing (playing in the Johnny Otis band on both records), but in an r&b context. Ben Webster fans shouldn't miss either one.

I have a good memory of hearing "One Nighter Blues" playing on a jukebox in an episode of Frank's Place, a great, but unfortunately shortlived, sitcom.

By the way, "One Nighter Blues" also features a fine bluesy guitar solo by Pete "Guitar" Lewis. R&B and/or blues guitarists would make another good thread, somewhere down the line.

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The first to come to my mind are David Van Dyke and Red Prysock on Wynonie Harris' single "Quiet Whisky" - all there is to say in a few bars.

I like these guys much better when they had to squeeze everything they wanted to say into a short chorus - on longer sax solo features they often got lost in the exitement. Negative high point: "Whistlin' Joe" by whatwashisname?

Al Sears was great, Big jay McNeely - there are plenty good honkers, but they should be taken in small doses to best effect. In the long run, some jazz honkers with R&B inflections win the game - Arnett Cobb, Gene Ammons, Fathead - King Curtis was great, check out his Prestige jazz sides!

Mike that one snuck right by me. Just a reminder to me not to go a thread like this at warp speed. Sorry bout that.

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I think Chuck Nessa mentioned Buddy Tate above. He takes a very convincing rnb break on Jimmy Rushing's Hey Miss Bessie (I have it on Onyx 220, Big Little Bands, its also available on disc on Classics). The Onyx lp also has a Russell Jacquet jump blues date with Dexter Gordon on board. Good stuff.

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  • 2 years later...

King Curtis was the man on virtually all the Coasters singles, presumably "Along Came Jones" as well. What I wanta know is who was it on the Chords' "ShBoom"? It's not yer usual hard 'n heavy honking, but it sure sounds sweet to me. I'm also quite fond of Bobby Keys' work on the stones' "brown Sugar" which pretty much distills everything he learned from King curtis, et al. Also love Jr. Walker who took honking into the Soul era, "Cleo's Back" and the other pre-Motown singles esp'ly.

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What I wanta know is who was it on the Chords' "ShBoom"? It's not yer usual hard 'n heavy honking, but it sure sounds sweet to me.

I think it was Sam "The Man" Taylor. The sleeve notes to "Atlantic R&B 1947-1974" say the group was formed with him on tenor sax. but don't explicitly say that he was on their first session.

MG

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What I wanta know is who was it on the Chords' "ShBoom"? It's not yer usual hard 'n heavy honking, but it sure sounds sweet to me.

I think it was Sam "The Man" Taylor. The sleeve notes to "Atlantic R&B 1947-1974" say the group was formed with him on tenor sax. but don't explicitly say that he was on their first session.

MG

Found a mention on Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks http://home.att.net/~uncamarvy/Chords/chords.html which says that Sam "The Man" Taylor played on "Cross Over the Bridge", the flip of ShBoom. If that's so, it makes sense that he played on the entire session.

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What I wanta know is who was it on the Chords' "ShBoom"? It's not yer usual hard 'n heavy honking, but it sure sounds sweet to me.

I think it was Sam "The Man" Taylor. The sleeve notes to "Atlantic R&B 1947-1974" say the group was formed with him on tenor sax. but don't explicitly say that he was on their first session.

MG

Found a mention on Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks http://home.att.net/~uncamarvy/Chords/chords.html which says that Sam "The Man" Taylor played on "Cross Over the Bridge", the flip of ShBoom. If that's so, it makes sense that he played on the entire session.

Thanks for that link Paul - Marv Goldberg is truly magnificent! (No relation:) )

MG

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  • 6 years later...

Bumping this fine thread since ...

Another fabulous source for tenor sax dominated rockin good tunes is the Buddy Johnson Orch. I was lucky to pick up the Bear Family Buddy & Ella Johnson box set which covers from 1953-1962. Featured tenors include David Van Dyke, Purvis Henson and Johnny Burdine.

... a recommendation on another forum just prompted me to check out Buddy Johnson's band ... and for sure there's some fine blowing (I've got the 1947-49 Chrono disc) by these guys David Van Dyke and Purvis Henson!

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Yes, Buddy Johnson is great. His EmArcy Recordings from the 50s (which is what BF apparently has collated) are quite nice too but tend to be a bit formulaic IMO (I have the Official 80s reissues of those 6 or 7 EmArcy LPs they did at the time) and need to be taken in somewhat smaller doses, i.e. less than one LP at a time. Those EmArcy LPs IMO were among those that did not really do the then "new" concept of 12-inchers a great service. Too much of a "something for everybody" programming.

I feel the somewhat earlier Decca sides were better.

If you want to go for 50s "powerhouse sax" LPs on EmArcy, go for Red Prysock! ;)

Nice thread, BTW. Missed it the first time around, apparently, even its brief return in 2007.

And this thread ought to be read in conjunction NOW, I think:

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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What are those Krazy Kat reissues, don't know them!

Lots of vinyl reissued (or alternate tracks sometimes issued for the frst time) in the 80, manly from the Gotham label.

These days (CD reissues) Krazy Kat is mainly focusing on Western swing (EXCELLENT stuff!) but has been dormant for a while:

http://www.interstate-music.co.uk/index.html

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