I dunno why I never realized this before, but the sax player/lead singer for Fishbone (Angelo Moore aka Dr Madd Vibe) plays bass sax. Yeh, he will do tenor like every other ska band before him, but he will also do soprano.. alto.. bari.. and bass. I never realized this.. and I feel stupid.
Not only does he play the classic wrap bass...
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He plays the moderns wrapped one, too!
I feel stupid.. am I missing any other bass sax players in modern music. And no, Adrian Rollini doesn't count.
Amazing isn't it, the things you can do in Europop. The number (even in 2001) is totally 80s new wave sex pop, with 70s looking outfits and a lead singer who looks like she stepped out of a 30s floor show.
We could go into the semiotics of the bass sax as used here. A crusty old dude with a ZZ Top beard, playing his creaky, gassy funk figure over and over and over. He is the aging hipster libido, slowly leaving the loins and sinking into the bowels, dreams of lascivious pouting divas melting into a muddle, but still dancing.
I saw a performance once a long time ago on Saturday Night Live where a guy was dancing while playing a bass sax. It was a vintage satin silver Buescher or Conn. I wish could fine it on YouTube.
They used that horn in a couple of number IIRC. One was "King Tut" with Steve Martin, and the other was an all nurse band...led by none other than the now popular soundtrack composer, Howard Shore.
A few of my friends went to see an Indie band called Arcade Fire (they played at an Obama rally in Chapel Hill) and they had a guy who played bass sax in a few songs along with french horn, oboe, and clarinet.
I think it's Colin Stetson who has been getting the call for them. He did some very good work with Tom Waits on Alice a few years back. He has been in New York a couple of years.
As far as I know Kelly Pratt of The Bjorkestra plays trumpet with them as well.
I was browsing through the local books store, and saw a book that had pictures from 3 decades of concerts at CBGB OMFUG.. Of course there were pictures of the Ramones (duh).. Sex Pistols.. then I hit 1991, and lo' and behold.. there is Angelo Moore, crowd reaching at his ankles, as he is wailing on the bass sax.
lol The bass sax has entered the underground.. it is just that it is SO underground that nobody knows XD
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