Who's your favorite Alto Sax Player?

[Ibuchreitz]

Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Julian Cannonball Adderley, Maceo Parker - and all the ones I forgot to mention. Who's your favorite and why?

I'd have to go with Charlie Parker or Dolphy. They're pretty different from each other, but both outstanding.

[flat5]

Charles Julian Konitz

[P.L.M]

Charlie Parker, Art Pepper, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Lyons, Anthony Braxton.

[Cliff Englewood]

Art Pepper.

[Cyril]

Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Charles McPherson...

[Spontooneous]

Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Carlos Ward, Jimmy Lyons...

[Larry Kart]

Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Johnny Hodges, Roscoe Mitchell, Benny Carter and Lord knows how many more.

[kh1958]

If I'm limited to one, it's Charlie Parker.

[Dan Gould]

What Ken said.

If its limited to two, Bird and Benny Carter.

[BillF]

Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean, Cannonball Adderley, Art Pepper, Ornette Coleman

[Larry Kart]

Ornette, too, of course.

[kh1958]

But if I can pick five, it's Bird, Ornette, Johnny Hodges, Cannonball Adderley, and Art Pepper.

[carnivore]

Johnny Hodges above everyone else. Next would be Bird, Bud Shank, Phil Woods and Benny Carter. I liked Konitz way back but the last couple of decades leave me stone cold. And I feel, notwithstanding his occasional brilliance, Pepper lacks the consistency of the others.

[brownie]

If I'm limited to one, it's Charlie Parker.

What he said.

Others - in no specific order - Johnny Hodges, Art Pepper, Jimmy Lyons, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods, Jackie McLean and so many others!

[AllenLowe]

Earl Warren (the Basie one - little known as a soloist, but could play the pants off Benny Carter) -

Pete Brown

Dave Schildkraut

Charlie Parker

Gene Quill

Ornette Coleman

Dudu Pukwana

Capn John Handy (the N.O. guy)

Eric Dolphy

[JSngry]

Ernie Henry & Pops Poopadeaux

[Mark Stryker]

When I played, it was Jackie McLean's sound and conception that was the strongest voice in my ear, but the list of favorites is long and varied: Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Frank Strozier, Sonny Stitt (at his most inspired), late Art Pepper, early Charlie Mariano, Charles McPherson (the way he plays today), also with great appreciation for Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Lyons, Sonny Redd, Roscoe Mitchell, Arthur Blythe, some Lee Konitz, as lead players in a section: Marshall Royal and Jerome Richardson) ... many others

[paul secor]

If I had to pick one - glad I don't - it would be Bird.

Too many others to think of and to list. A few favorites that haven't already been mentioned:

Hilton Jefferson, Paul Desmond, Claude Lawrence

[Dave James]

Art Pepper.

[kh1958]

But if I can pick five, it's Bird, Ornette, Johnny Hodges, Cannonball Adderley, and Art Pepper.

I should have said six because I can't leave out Eric Dolphy.

[AllenLowe]

always liked Russel Procope

[ajf67]

All of my favorites have been named, but I did want to put in anther mention of Art Pepper. The sound he gets on the Contemporaries is just fantastic. I like the looseness of his improvising (i'm not a musician, so I don't know how else to describe it). Plus, I like where he ended up in his later recordings, with more expressiveness, such as the Vanguard recordings. He also did what I think is one of the best albums with strings, which is "Winter Moon," if I remember correctly. Love the guy.

[ep1str0phy]

Ornette, Dolphy, Dudu Pukwana, Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Mike Osborne, Jimmy Lyons, Jackie McLean, Bird, Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe. I just realized that that's a really acute modernist/postmodernist bent but, hey, whatever... I think there's another list for altos who have intermittently blown my mind but not in any sort of career spanning way (Ernie Henry, Michael Sessions, Hodges, Cannonball, Konitz, etc.)

Oh--and say what you will about James Spaulding--he kills it with Charles Tolliver and on the handful of prime Blue Notes (Solid, Components) that suit his vocalistic modal bent.

[Joe]

Very glad to see Dudu Pukwana appear on a couple of your lists.

I've probably listened to more Jackie McLean than any other alto player, but, end of the day, I have to go with Art Pepper -- for the emotional qualities in his playing, for the risks he was always willing to take, and for the simple "intrigue" factor. Konitz is high up there for many of the same reasons.

Also near the top of the list: Julius Hemphill; Bird; Ornette; and Anthony Braxton and Henry Thredgill, both of whom I think of as primarily alto players.

PS -- not a favorite per se, but I've always really enjoyed Carlos Ward's playing, with Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim and others.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Joe

[Mark Stryker]

Coda: Bunky Green, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Henry Threadgill (perhaps more as a composer, and from what you might call the younger generation, Kenny Garrett and Steve Wilson.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Mark Stryker