[78-L] Tenor Sax Styles.

[Dan Van Landingham]

I taught myself to play tenor sax back in late 1969 as a junior in high school.I used Hawkins as my role model as well as listening to the likes of Don Byas,Webster as
well as a few now forgotten players such as Dick Wilson of Andy Kirk's band and Bob
Carroll who played tenor for Don Redman in the thirties.One tenor player I can't really
classify was Chu Berry,whose tone struck me as being somewhere between Hawkins
and Lester Young whose tone I could never duplicate even though I tried to do so.I still
prefer Hawkins and his school over the some of the later tenorists I also heard from the
late thirties.I heard Georgie Auld by way of a handful of Bunny Berigan recordings but he
was never a favourite of mine.Charlie Barnet I got a kick out of but I admired his arrangers
even more so.Whatever respect Flip Phillips had was lost after that infamous solo he took
on "Perdido" with the JATP in the late forties.The sound Hawkins had by 1950 left me so-
mewhat befuddled:was he losing his lung power by then or was he just changing his tone
to accomodate the newer jazz fans?I cite his recordings from 1950 on Roost as examples.

--- On Thu, 1/7/10, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:


From: Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Tenor Sax Styles.
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 4:03 AM


Spats wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> The main thing about pre-war tenor-payers...indeed, sax-players in 
> general, is that they had what I call a 'fat' sound.
> 
> Lester Young started the journey toward a leaner sound which ended 
> with Coltrane and his imitators.
> 
> I, however, have always preferred that fat sound...Ben Webster...with 
> that big warm centre cushion surrounded around by a little air, 
> Coleman Hawkins and HIS big sound and all the people who tried to 
> play like them.
> 
> That's what I, at any rate, think of when I think of a 'big band' tenor player.
> 
> You know, it probably all began with a BASS sax player, that OTHER 
> Rollini called Adrian!
> 
> Earl.
--------------------
Earl,
I agree about Adrian Rollini, he seems to have been the first to bring 
dignity to saxophone playing. I'm still stuck for describing the various 
styles though.

My interpretation of "big band tenors" doesn't include Hawk or Webster, 
although they did, of course, play in big bands. Perhaps it should be 
"swing band tenors", e.g. Vido Musso, Don Lodice, Georgie Auld, Ed 
Clausen, Charlie Barnet and Tony Zimmers. I don't include Bud Freeman, 
Eddie Miller or Babe Russin because they appear not have subsumed their 
style to fit into their swing band environments.

Again, my question was not about personal favourite players or styles.

      Julian Vein


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