# Recommend me some good saxophone music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263 "2008-09-26T01:18:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/1 "2008-09-26T01:18:29Z")
I prefer solos, but I can’t find very many good ones. I don’t really know where to look. Normally I don’t like the brassy sound of many horns but I’m finding a liking for the sax. I’ll take artists, composers, anything. Youtube links are highly appreciated. I’m cool with famous or popular songs redone with the sax, too, just to get myself familiarized with it. (What do you call a saxophone player? A saxist? Ha! I slay me.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/2 "2008-09-26T01:25:53Z")
[Simply the best.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI&feature=related) [6 years later.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V9VSxn2F9M&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/3 "2008-09-26T01:28:30Z")
Stan Getz is da man. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/4 "2008-09-26T01:33:20Z")
**John Coltrane** and **Wayne Shorter** for me. I find **Stan Getz** a little heavy-handed stylistically ( yeah, I know - like “hard bop” isn’t heavy-handed 😉 ), but I still like him and a lot of the Bossa Nova scene generally. **Sonny Rollins** is also worth giving a try. ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/5 "2008-09-26T09:53:27Z")
Wayne Shorter, master of restraint, always classy, and can be heard with a variety of bands and artists. A composer of note. Charlie Parker wrote many chapters of the book, but if you haven’t dipped into bebop, “Parker’s Mood” is a sweet whimsical 12 bar blues that shows one tormented human teaching angels how to PLAY the damn horn. ( I’ve heard they prefer Sex-oftenists ) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/6 "2008-09-26T12:28:36Z")
_A song played on a solo saxophone_ “Last Night of the World” from Miss Saigon. Evita has “I’ll Be Surprisingly Good For You.” ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/7 "2008-09-26T12:53:37Z")
Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk are two late great (may they RIP) masters that come to mind. Dolphy’s work with Mingus is incredibly high level, totally sublime. For appreciation of Rahsaan, you have to have a tolerance for wildness but the man was a stone genius. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/8 "2008-09-26T13:45:31Z")
This thread from last year might give you some ideas: [recommend some saxophone to inspire my nephew](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=443409) ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/9 "2008-09-26T13:46:33Z")
These are great. Thanks for the thread link! Any more? Keep them coming! ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/10 "2008-09-26T13:58:43Z")
**Ben Webster** - King of the Tenors (date music Old School - very romantic) **Gerry Mulligan** Encounters\*\* Ben Webster\*\* **Sonny Rollins** - Saxophone Colossus, Bluenote’s Best Of and so many others… **Dexter Gordon** - Go **Cannonball Adderly** - Something Else **Art Pepper** - Meets the Rhythm Section **John Coltrane** - start with Blue Trane for accessibility, then My Favorite Things - he gets more out from there… **Paul Desmond** - start with **Dave Brubeck’s Take Five** , which features Desmond… Plenty of Charlie Parker - I have a few best ofs…I have a few Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges (Passion Flower?) but don’t have specific discs to name… Lots and lots more jazz to discuss but this is a decent set of CDs that sound beautiful and provide a good grounding across a few key jazz sax players… ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/11 "2008-09-28T19:40:38Z")
**Foreigner** – _Urgent_. One of the best sax intros in popular music, IMHO, and a good solo or two in the middle, as well. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/12 "2008-09-28T19:57:13Z")
Here’s a can’t miss help to get you into the beauty of what a saxophone can be. Rent or buy “Round Midnight” starring Dexter Gordon. It was the only movie he ever did and he was nominated for an Academy Award. If you can’t love good saxophone playing after that, then I don’t know what else will do it. The visuals will help you connect to the artistry. Also it will help your ear distinguish real saxophone from the phony stuff out there where guys with lousy tone just try to rip up the scales. All that being said, there has been a long history of great saxophone players. Check them all out and then tell us which ones really touched your soul. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/13 "2008-09-28T21:18:32Z")
When Johnny Hodges died and went to heaven, Aldophe Saxe pushed St. Peter out of the way to shake his hand, saying “That’s the way I wanted my instrument to sound.” [Lotus Blossom](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0oLYCdoDC8) Hodges doesn’t play until about 2 minutes in… [Blood Count](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ckls62nZHw) or you could just get the album “… and his mother called him Bill”, all of which is outstanding, and the story of which is deeply moving. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/14 "2008-09-29T01:40:06Z")
The theme from Cowboy Bebop ([**Tank!** by the Seatbelts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-TAxm00jOg)) features some sax in both a big-damn horn section and in solos. The linked clip shows a live gig with a fantastic solo… pretty much every note of it is just rippin’ good. I hate me some noodling, and I loathe saxophones in general, but the solo and the big blowout riff at the end of the [studio version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Kf545Kg4s&feature=related) of **Tank!** basically redeem the entire concept of jazz and saxophone solos for me. That, and the solo in **Take Five**. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/15 "2008-09-29T09:56:09Z")
After 148 customer reviews at Amazon, this recording still ranks five stars. It’s probably my favorite recording ever: [Stan Getz/Gilberto/Jobim](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000047CX/realbookliste2-20). Songs from this album began to come out in the early-mid 1960s. Tom Jobim wrote the best Bossa Novas and Stan Getz played them just right for my ear. He had a very soft and breathy quality to his playing Sometimes what he leaves off is as meaningful as what he plays. Some of these may be familiar to you already. The soundtrack to **Taxi Driver** also has some nice sax in it. You might try sampling it to see what you think. I’m also a fan of Paul Desmond. (Trivia about Desmond: He and Gloria Steinem had a serious relationship. He died young, I believe.) I like him with Brubeck on an album where they play Cole Porter music. Wore that vinyl out in 1967-68. ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-saxophone-music/465263/16 "2008-09-29T12:56:11Z")
From the rock perspective it’s hard to got past the late, great **Morphine**