According to many, the saxophone is the most jazz of all existing musical instruments. He is also the youngest representative of the wind section. The saxophone was invented in the mid-19th century by the musician Sax. This article will discuss the best saxophonists of all time.
How winds conquered jazz
The city of New Orleans in southern America has long been famous for its love of music and vibrant, colorful performances. For several decades of the 19th century, minstrels parades were often held here - shows in which black actors and singers parodying whites participated. New Orleans was also at that time one of the most militarized cities in the United States of America.
On its territory, along with many military units, there was a huge number of regimental orchestras. Therefore, the most accessible instruments for children were wind instruments, inherited from parents and grandfathers, who once provided musical accompaniment for parades. The fashion for marches and mazurkas eventually passed, giving way to the melodies and rhythms of jazz compositions that came from the culture of blacks.
The saxophone did not immediately win the championship among wind instruments. Initially, the first in popularity were the trumpet (cornet) and trombone. Among the most famous musicians who played these instruments are Louis Armstrong, the recognized king of jazz, as well as Dizzy Gillespie and trombone player Glenn Miller. One of the first famous saxophonists was the black musician Coleman Hawkins, known both for his solo performances and a duet with Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
New music
The saxophone gained its leading value with the dawn of the bebop era. From time immemorial, jazz musicians amused themselves by arranging peculiar musical competitions where they competed in improvisation, creating new pieces based on already known melodies. This kind of playing music was called "jam session".
During the popularity of swing, a jazz dance genre that was common in the 30s and 40s. XX century, musicians often remained after concerts, improvised with each other for their pleasure. During such parties, a new kind of jazz was born - bebop. He was distinguished by the fast pace of compositions, the masterly performance by the musicians of his parts. Often present in the works of the so-called duels of performers is a powerful energy charge. Charlie Parker is undoubtedly one of the best saxophonists. He is one of the founders of bebop.
The musician said that his goal was to create such music that white jazzmen, who often borrowed popular works from their dark-skinned colleagues, could not perform.
"Bird"
As already mentioned, Charlie Parker, nicknamed “The Bird” (given to him for the extraordinary ease of musical passages) and his friend Dizzy Gillespie stood at the origins of bebop. But, to the great regret of music lovers, their first musical experiments were not reflected in the sound recording, since in the 1942-1944s. The release of commercial music in the United States was banned. However, later Bird recorded numerous albums both in collaboration with his friend Gillespie and solo. The most popular was the joint recording, called Dizz and Bird.
Even the failures of Charlie Parker were perceived by his fans as masterpieces of musical art. During one of the sessions in the studio, a bird suffering from drug addiction was in such poor condition that he could not play his parts cleanly, he made a lot of falsehood when recording. However, despite this, a number of celebrities admit that this particular record is their favorite CD from Charlie Parker's entire discography.
The musician himself has repeatedly admitted that if he had the will, he would have destroyed the entire circulation of this record. The greatest commercial success was recorded by Charlie, accompanied by the string group of the orchestra. One of the most bewitching compositions of this album is the work “Autumn in New York”. The sharp, assertive sound of the saxophone here successfully harmonizes with the incompatible soft sound of the strings.
Intellectuals
Charlie Parker is called one of the best saxophonists, as well as the most intelligent musician of the XX century. His improvisational solos are striking in their diversity, accuracy and completeness of musical phrases. Friends recalled that Charlie Parker could speak on almost any topic, knew how to maintain a conversation on areas that were alien to the musician: nuclear physics, economics and others. He and Dizzy Gillespie in the musical environment have received the nickname "Professors from music."
"Son"
The musician Sonny Rollins was lucky in his youth not only to get acquainted with his idol Charlie Parker, but also to take part in jams with him and other famous jazz saxophonists who nicknamed him “Son”. He also grew in the neighborhood of the quarter where the great musicians lived: Telonius Monk, County Basie and others.
From childhood, he absorbed their rhythmic, full of cheerfulness and energy music. He had no idea of any other fate than the path of a jazz musician. From the age of sixteen, Sonny played in various musical ensembles with such famous personalities as Telonius Monk and Miles Davis.
His unique style is distinguished by the fact that, unlike the older generation jazz saxophonists, Sonny Rollins did not disdain the performance of popular melodies and jazz standards. He only performed them in his own way, bringing something new to the game.
Rollins began his composition with a game of the main theme, then beat it with several variations, after which his improvisation became more distant from the main musical material. Japanese writer Haruki Murakami in one of his works confessed his love for Rollins' music. He wrote that this musician is able to penetrate deeply into the essence of each work.
Saxophone Colossus Album
Sonny Rollins was also the first of the musicians who took the risk of taking a long vacation in his career. The first time this happened in the late fifties, when Sonny needed to rethink his work and outline future paths of musical development. To do this, he took a two-year break in activity, during which he often went to the bridge over the river, not far from his house, and improvised for hours.
The saxophonist took his second leave in the late sixties. Such a meaningful approach to creativity has borne fruit. The creative activity of this musician continues to this day. A new dawn of his musical career occurred when Sonny Rollnz was already over seventy. Then he recorded several albums that won the Grammy Award.
One of the best new generation saxophonists
Surely many people, having heard the name of Marienthal, will ask: “Who is this?” However, they do not even suspect that his music is most likely familiar to them for many years. Since Eric is the author of the soundtracks of the popular television series Santa Barbara and Alf. The famous jazz pianist and composer Chick Koria opened this saxophonist to the world. Once young Eric Marienthal played one of his first recitals.
Suddenly, the musician's gaze stopped on a face that seemed extremely familiar to him. It was the idol of his childhood, Chick Koria, who after a concert came up to him and invited him to participate in his musical project. So the young musician became a member of the ensemble of prominent jazz musician Chick Koria. Two albums recorded with this line-up were awarded Grammy. Eric Marienthal also received several awards for his solo work.
Pioneer
Domestic jazz music also boasts that we have a world-class saxophonist in our country. Alexey Kozlov, this is the name of this musician, in his youth he was a big fan of bebop, and in the fifties one of the first in the Union began to perform music of this direction. In the 60s, he organized several jazz clubs and cafes, which were very popular.
In the early seventies, the first professional Soviet jazz-rock ensemble "Arsenal" was founded. Alexei Kozlov is not only a musician, but also a promoter of jazz and rock music, the author of several books about his biography, creativity, and history of music.