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Twenty-Five Great Jazz Soprano Saxophone Performances

3K views 35 replies 14 participants last post by  BH9 
#1 ·
#4 ·
I'm sure we could come up with a number of other players and other performances. Which performance for John Surman would you select?

For example, for Sidney Bechet, although they are atypical of his earlier jazz style, I've always thought this pair of performances with Claude Bolling were phenomenal.

 
#36 ·
You know, I get what you mean but that sound is really a characteristic of conical wind instruments. Yes, it can sound oboish if you emphasize that aspect of it, but that is due more to the shared geometry of the instruments than the reed. That's what I believe, anyway. Also, I hear quite a bit of that quality in Bechet's music. Alone in that?
 
#6 ·
John Surman should be in there somewhere
He's mentioned at least ...
 
#20 ·
The album "My Favorite Things" is probably one of my top 5 favorite jazz albums. Both of the two songs "My Favorite Things" and "Every Time We Say Goodbye" are great artistic performances, and I love listening to them, and even trying to play along with them. But Coltrane's tone on soprano was not good.

We can separate tone from artistic merit, can't we?

We should be able to have a conversation where we separately discuss tone and artistic merit. Anyone here like Bob Dylan? But my experience from previous threads on SOTW is that we can't. I have to guess it is because we can't agree on what "tone" means. It seems like a lot of people lump in some sort of artistic goodness in their evaluation of a player's tone.

I'm with Grumps on this one.

While I would still prefer to listen to Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" or "Every Time We Say Goodbye" over anything Kenny G has done, Coltrane did not have command of the sound on his instrument. Great art and feeling, and on the first song he displays great articulation, but not the sound.

I am sure I will get a lot of disagreement on this one. Go for it. I did wear out my "My Favorite Things" LP, and eventually replace it with a CD copy and iTunes, so I have heard it enough to have an opinion.
 
#10 ·
From the article:
Reportedly Miles Davis purchased a soprano for his saxophonist at the time John Coltrane, while the group was on tour in Europe in March of 1960. Coltrane started progressively using the straight horn and he soon after broke from Davis to form his own group with McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. At that time only Steve Lacy was actively utilizing the instrument in jazz. The instrument had little reach outside its limited use in the world of jazz until saxophonist John Coltrane made his ground-breaking album My Favorite Things using his soprano. The adventurous Coltrane made the soprano soar on this modal exploration of a Rogers and Hammerstein song from the Broadway show The Sound of Music. The song was transformed into a hypnotically driven, raga-inspired chant whose melody was immediately familiar despite its wildly exploratory improvisational forays over a repeated vamp. It became an instant hit and a vital bridge to an expanding non-jazz audience. It also opened the doors for many future players to explore the transcendental, eastern inspired sound of this unique instrument. The multi-instrumentalist ( not yet Rahsaan) Roland Kirk played a manzello quite proficiently. The manzello is a King saxello soprano saxophone with an extended bell. Kirk made his statement on the instrument in the late sixties with his "A Handful of Fives."
Emphasis added.

The author, at least, thinks that the chanter-like sound was an intentional part of the musical exploration, which is why the author includes him. It's definitely not the most melodious soprano sax sound, but I think that is probably part of the point.

Kenny G does get an honorable mention in the crossover arena. My observation of Mr. Gorelick is that he exploits the peculiar characteristics of his sax and setup to create a unique sound.

And once again, I have probably made the mistake of failing to remember that Grumps often says the opposite of what he really means.
 
#11 ·
And once again, I have probably made the mistake of failing to remember that Grumps often says the opposite of what he really means.
And along that vein, I have to clarify that it wasn't meant as an endorsement of Kenny G. I just think Miles did the world a disservice with that gift. He must have still been high at the time...

Great post and links though. Thanks for that.
 
#12 ·
it was Miles who blazed a trail combining the soprano with electronics, while flavoring jazz with rock and funk. it was featured, along with his trumpet, on every album from 1969's In a Silent Way through the 1975 Tokyo concerts that initiated and closed his great fusion period. i think all the great players who joined him on the horn were mentioned in the article, but check out Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, Big Fun, On the Corner, Get Up with It, along with all the live sets. also, Bennie Maupin brought that vibe to contemporaneous Herbie Hancock Mshwandi-Headhunter grooves. great stuff.
 
#25 ·
Zoot Sims is listed but a different performance.
 
#22 ·
i think it might be a mistake to assume Coltrane wasn't going for that tone on purpose. One thing is that it's pretty much a tone you can only get on sop, as opposed to other saxes in the family. That may have been something in he was interested in pursuing. "What can I get from this new instrument that I can't get elsewhere?"

I sense a similar approach from Joseph Jarman, for example.
 
#24 ·
Coltrane often had a similarly thin sound on tenor as well, so yes, maybe that tone was his goal.
 
#23 ·
I agree with parkerknoll. In the literature I have read, he was looking for an Middle Eastern, oboe - ish sound. Personally, I prefer his soprano solos on Central Park West and particularly on The Damned Don't Cry over My Favourite Things. But that is only a personal opinion and not a criticism of his playing on any of the pieces.
 
#26 ·
I always liked Coltrane's soprano tone, especially on Central Park West and My Favorite Things. Considering how different from the norm his tenor tone was for the time, I think he most likely had a specific sound he was going for. I guess whether you like it or not is preference.

On the topic of Soprano tones, how do you guys feel about Bob Berg's? I've always thought it fit his style of playing really well, but I have a friend who winces whenever he hears it.

 
#32 ·
I like Coltrane's tone on soprano and think that sound was exactly what he was going for. To me he sounds like Coltrane on soprano-shares a unique quality with his tenor sound.

The first time I heard it, did not like, so could be due to either evolving taste or declining hearing.
 
#33 ·
I really like the sound of Grover Washington and Jan Garbarek. I can't stand David Liebman or John Coltrane on soprano. Too wild and out of tune for my taste. My idea of a good soprano sax tone is one that sounds just like an alto or tenor, but higher pitched.
 
#34 ·
Perception is an interesting group of phenomena. Not long ago, I read a controversial article about human color perception. As long ago as a few thousand years, humans may not have been able to see purple and maybe not even blue. What is not controversial is that the human perception of color has changed in a relatively short period of time.

Similarly, in the history of music 2,000 years ago or so, if a pitch was outside a given pentatonic scale or various similar scales around the world, it was considered discordant. In the middle ages in Europe, the fourth was taboo and gave rise to the tritone, the devil's chord, because of its discordant sound. With the advent of the diatonic and accompanying minor and modal scales and eventually equal temperament, discord was acceptable and evoked emotion as long as it resolved. The expression of nearly chromatic be-bop players like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and others and chromatic jazz players like Coltrane and Liebman and tons of others seek to breach the boundaries of perception and challenge the nature of discord and resolution.

Single-tone instruments like the saxophone are challenged in that they cannot play chords, but either have to fit into or over background accompaniment or deconstruct chords as a series of notes.

So, if you told John Coltrane or Dave Liebman to their faces that you do not like their music, I think they would say, "That's cool, I really don't expect most people to get it." And, BTW, I think that this is why jazz struggles. It was meant to be cutting-edge, not popular; expressive, not mundane; and evocative, not trite. Whether or not it is still all of those things is up for debate.

The most interesting thing to me about perception is the difference in a generation. My daughter is classically trained on piano, bassoon, and voice and plays several other instruments. She starts grad school in composition this Fall. A year or two ago, she wrote a fanfare for a brass ensemble. To me, it sounded like the most horrendous cacophony of a discordant mess. Then, she explained it to me the very sophisticated juxtaposition of harmonies. I still thought it sounded awful, but the brass ensemble loved it. In this post-modern era, it is entirely possible that they perceive harmony more broadly than I do.
 
#35 ·
Yeah, it all depends on what you're used to hearing. When we hear medieval music today, it sounds very bland, but they had different ideas of what sounds good back then, and certain intervals (even the perfect 4th) were strictly forbidden unless used in some passing tone or suspension. I can only imagine what Bach would've thought if he heard a Chopin or Wagner piece. It would probably sound really dissonant and wild to Baroque ears. Jazz is such a diverse genre, and it's really divisive as to what people like.
 
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