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King Super 20 Artists

37K views 70 replies 29 participants last post by  Oric Muso 
#1 ·
Is there a comprehensive list of King Super 20 artists anywhere?
I've seen the HN White website but there's a lot of artists missing from their pages.

Hank Mobley, Tina Brooks, Wardell Grey, Wilton Felder
, Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and British legend, Dick Heckstall Smith are the handful I've come across recently. Who can you add to the list?
 
#38 ·
DHS was mentioned in the original post. He died back in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Heckstall-Smith .
Barbara Thompson has played with Colosseum since. The Reunion concerts CD with DHA is super stuff.

Don't think this one has been mentioned - Chuck Rio played 'Tequila' on a Super 20.
According to some sources Dick Parry played the solo in Pink Floyd's 'Money' on a Super 20. And Doobie Brothers 'Taking it to the Streets' has Andrew Love on S20.
 
#42 ·
Indeed Reine, that was a great evening, especially for me playing with a giant as Rinus Groeneveld! Later that evening also Martijn Schok (the great Boogie Woogie pianist, see the video of Milandro posted in this thread) and Big Jay McNeely (touring with the Martijn Schok band in that week) came in. Martijn played some numbers with us, but Big Jay was (unfortunately) not in 'the mood' to play!

I know it's of topic, but can't resist to post some more pics of that evening (one with Martijn and one with Big Jay):
Clothing Musical instrument Musician Saxophone Piano
/ Forehead Smile Hairstyle Muscle Sleeve
:)
 
#45 ·
As mentioned earlier, Yusef Lateef played Super 20 tenor (and alto, I think). Emilio said Yusef had him sell his Kings for him when Yusef went to Europe with Cannonball. Emilio shook his head saying that he couldn't understand why...?

Why indeed. And why did Mobley, Griffin and many others switch to Selmer. I've heard it was because Selmer's played so much easier. A now departed tenor friend said that back in the day, they jokingly called them Sel(f play)ers.

Figure you're on the road, playing how many nights a week? year in, year out and along comes a tool that makes it so much easier to keep up the pace... watcha gon do?

Probably a similar calculus for players these days when considering what horn to play... a vintage horn with it's difficulties vs a new easy rider that you can just mic up and fiddle with some knobs to get a sound that's close enough....
 
#47 ·
I was thinking about the simplicity of Selmers whilst reading that other long thread about them. If a jobbing musician needs to do a few running repairs the screw on a Kings20 or Conn 10M are a nightmare to tackle. The Selmer system is so straight forward you can take screws out and put the thing back together without too much trouble. I don't know if any of you have tried putting a S20 G# back - but it aint easy - and then you have the locking nuts to mess with. Selmers have to be the easiest mechanism for players to tweak and keep running smooth.
 
#52 ·
My understanding (from Gayle at Vintagesax) is that many players who made the switch did so because Selmer gave their horns away for free; an inexpensive way of promoting their saxes. Now they are tasting their own medicine with addition of Asian spices.

BTW, I made the same blunder with Wilton Felder's horn in the Super 20 thread. Whoever fixed that neck should have kept the octave mechanism underslung!
 
#57 ·
Yes, I think that was the case. As always, wanting to capture all of the market, it would not have been much of a stretch for the company to offer up freebies to the big players of the day...a very small price to pay for instant advertising. Thus, like any human being, if given the choice between servicing your old reliable again or being handed a bunch of new horns which at that time had already achieved the reputation as 'the best'....what would most people do ? I am sure there were other sweeteners thrown in as well.

I can also add that, having spoken to many players from that era....even well into the 70's, the 2 horns which were considered the top-echelon pro models available were, indeed...the VI and...the S20. I have heard so many tales about folks' decision coming down to those two back in the day, I have lost count....
 
#58 ·
Just saw The Crusaders a few weeks ago at Yoshi's 40th Anniversary and Wilton is still playing a Super 20 with the Overslung(?) neck. I don't know if it's a custom neck or was modified......
 
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