soprano sax recommendations

[Cyril]

I'm not forgetting Bechet.

Of course not, he was mentioned in the second post.

Where he belongs, actually in the first post....

Edited December 19, 2014 by Cyril

[Milestones]

It's interesting that some big name tenor stars have dabbled with soprano--Sonny Rollins on the Milestone JazzStars and Stan Getz on Billy Highstreet Samba.

[johnblitweiler]

My soprano sax recommendation is for every player to learn another instrument as well.

[jazzbo]

DEEP would kill me but I like Bob Wilbur. And like the curved soprano.

[Larry Kart]

Some interesting thoughts from Dave Liebman about the fish horn:

http://www.daveliebman.com/Feature_Articles/SopranoSaxophone.htm

My soprano sax recommendation is for every player to learn another instrument as well.

And use the soprano as the base for a lamp.

[paul secor]

Johnny Hodges

[jazztrain]

I was going to mention Bob Wilber (note spelling) as well.

At the risk of this turning into just a list, it's worth noting that Budd Johnson played a nice soprano as well.

DEEP would kill me but I like Bob Wilbur. And like the curved soprano.

[Chuck Nessa]

The curved soprano is almost a different instrument to my hearing - more ballsy, fuller sound and thicker all hint at what I mean but don't nail it. Bob Wilber is a decent musician but his sound and recordings drive me up a wall. YMMV.

[Milestones]

I am in the camp of those who enjoy Bob Wilber, especially when teamed with Kenny Davern.

[Chuck Nessa]

I am in the camp of those who enjoy Bob Wilber, especially when teamed with Kenny Davern.

For me Kenny Davern is the Bob Wilber of the clarinet.

[Larry Kart]

The curved soprano is almost a different instrument to my hearing - more ballsy, fuller sound and thicker all hint at what I mean but don't nail it. Bob Wilber is a decent musician but his sound and recordings drive me up a wall. YMMV.

You know what it is? -- more curved.

[Ted O'Reilly]

The Scots-born Toronto musician Jim Galloway plays a curved soprano -- a real old one from the 1020's. It has a real saxophone sound, compared to the (older) straight sopranos, aka The Fishorn. The newer ones play in tune much better.

Galloway can be heard on lots of Sackville records...

And by the way, he's in pretty bad health these days, getting weaker and weaker from 'internal problems', not cancer...

[Larry Kart]

I am in the camp of those who enjoy Bob Wilber, especially when teamed with Kenny Davern.

For me Kenny Davern is the Bob Wilber of the clarinet.

FTW

[JSngry]

I am looking mainly for individual pieces that offer great soprano solos.

Meeting this criterion, and only this criterion - the cut "Mr. Smoke" from Pat Williams' Capitol album Threshold, the soloist is Tom Scott. It benefits greatly from an opening passage that may or may not be scored/predetermined/whatever, but whatever, the effect is to move the arrangement along out of an ensemble passage into the solo spot in a most definite way, and then carry that new energy through to the arrangement's conclusion, dropping it off as perfectly as it picked it up.. Other than that, Pat Williams was a master at whatever it was he was doing then (if you only remember watching TV from the 80s on, you can be forgiven for thinking of it as "TV music", just like 20s jazz is "cartoon music" - understandable association, but an after the fact conclusion, not an correct chronological truth), and Tom Scott, on this solo, is in the same zone, improvising.

I consider this a "great solo" because it serves the music at hand perfectly, and does so wholly from within. Whatever "weight" it may or may not have ultimately, that's another issue. But - if it's going to be the last solo of the last cut on an ambitious record (and "ambitious" means a lot of different things), then you'd want it to be a great solo, one that brings it all home triumphantly, and this one, in that sense, is.

[Clunky]

The soprano sax is the least loved member of the sax family in this house. In the hands of skilled practitioners it can sound great but quite often it's just a piercing wail of a sound which I struggle to enjoy. I'd agree that most soprano players need to learn a second instrument with a fatter fuller sound.

[Steve Reynolds]

The soprano sax is the least loved member of the sax family in this house. In the hands of skilled practitioners it can sound great but quite often it's just a piercing wail of a sound which I struggle to enjoy. I'd agree that most soprano players need to learn a second instrument with a fatter fuller sound.

Sometimes I feel this way

However do what you can to hear Evan Parker live on the straight horn

As full a sound as one could imagine

[Clunky]

The soprano sax is the least loved member of the sax family in this house. In the hands of skilled practitioners it can sound great but quite often it's just a piercing wail of a sound which I struggle to enjoy. I'd agree that most soprano players need to learn a second instrument with a fatter fuller sound.

Sometimes I feel this way

However do what you can to hear Evan Parker live on the straight horn

As full a sound as one could imagine

I've no problem with Parker , he's great

[BillF]

The soprano sax is the least loved member of the sax family in this house. In the hands of skilled practitioners it can sound great but quite often it's just a piercing wail of a sound which I struggle to enjoy. I'd agree that most soprano players need to learn a second instrument with a fatter fuller sound.

Sometimes I feel this way

However do what you can to hear Evan Parker live on the straight horn

As full a sound as one could imagine

I've no problem with Parker , he's great

[A Lark Ascending]

I've always loved the soprano - many of the names above (including our Evan, duck).

Charlie Mariano comes to mind as an additional - came to love him in Eberhard Weber's 70s band and then heard things beyond.

A lot of UK tenor players double on soprano - an early favourite was Stan Sulzmann's wonderful snake-like piece 'G.R.S.' on 'On Loan With Gratitude' (long OOP). The likes of Iain Ballamy, Julian Arguelles, Mark Lockheart and Julian Siegel all make marvellous use of it.

I'm not a listener who can survive by following musical lines alone...I like the colouristic effects that a range of instruments can bring. So a quartet with a sax player who can switch between tenor and soprano gives that variety of timbre that I like best in music. I appreciate others find such things mere distraction from the musical logic.

A favourite from someone mentioned above but in an early appearance in someone else's band. Steve Lacy's solo on 'Just One Of Those Things' on the Gil Evans Ten album. I think that was the record that first alerted me to Lacy sometime in the early 80s.

Edited December 20, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Louis Sclavis is a fine soprano player. Listen to 'Soul is Free' from 'Suite Africaine' [Label Bleu] for proof. He switches between soprano and clarinets through the album. Henri Texier and Aldo Romano are on board so you know it's going to be a great listen

[StarThrower]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3fX8hwJD2w

[jeffcrom]

A favourite from someone mentioned above but in an early appearance in someone else's band. Steve Lacy's solo on 'Just One Of Those Things' on the Gil Evans Ten album. I think that was the record that first alerted me to Lacy sometime in the early 80s.

All of Lacy's solos from Gil Evans Plus Ten are great, but particularly "Just One of Those Things" and the more abstract "Ella Speed."

And that Evans album was my introduction to Lacy - and I didn't even want it, really. As a teenager, I read Ira Gitler's Jazz Masters of the 40s, and was intrigued by the Tadd Dameron chapter. So I bought The Arrangers' Touch, a Prestige two-fer with one disc by Dameron and one by Evans - the Ten album. I had never heard of Steve Lacy, but after "Just One of Those Things," I asked myself, "Did I really just hear what I thought I heard?"

After that, I bought a then-recent Lacy album - the solo Clinkers. Quite a contrast, but I liked it just as much.

[colinmce]

I have a true soft spot for John Surman's solo records from the 80s, which feature a lot of soprano. I won't go so far as to call them a guilty pleasure since a) I don't believe in such a thing and b) I think the albums have reasonable musical value, but it's nonetheless an appreciation that I sense is not widely shared.

[A Lark Ascending]

I have a true soft spot for John Surman's solo records from the 80s, which feature a lot of soprano. I won't go so far as to call them a guilty pleasure since a) I don't believe in such a thing and b) I think the albums have reasonable musical value, but it's nonetheless an appreciation that I sense is not widely shared.

I share your liking for them. My favourite (from the 90s, I think) is 'The Road to St. Ives'.

I suspect part of the issue is that Surman seemed to be (at one stage) deep inside the world of explosive free or near free improvisation. But there are other sides to his musical personality that come out in the solo/duo/choral/strings albums that don't seem to chime with what is considered 'edgy'.

[sidewinder]

Oliver Nelson's playing on soprano is very under-rated. Much of his best work on this instrument is on the Mosaic set.