Solo Saxophone

[JSngry]

Recorded at the same session as Picasso?

Let's question that assertion.

Or maybe Picasso was recorded a few years before release by Granz?

Otherwise, Moe Asch. That makes total sense.

I took the familiarity of the Selmer logi for granted, having played them fo 50+ years. But not everybody has had that exposure LOL!

Another factor - Selmer was at this time really upping the game of saxophone technology. From the Balance Action to the Super Action to the Mark VI, Selmer horns were always developing means for easier, faster fingering and a more easily even tone. They had competition from King, Conn, and Buescher, but Selmer pushed hard and eventually won the game (the King Super 20 was the last real competitor).

Ask anybody who has played other vintage horns - they can sound great and be played fluently, but it takes work. A Selmer (from Balanced Actions on) "solve" those "issues".

Selmer went off tack for a while in the 70s, and today's players have all kinds of options. But at the time under discussion here, Selmer was in a kind of war to prove there superior technology, and they were fighting it to win.

All that to say that if you wanted to position your product as a master horn for a master player, Coleman Hawkins was your guy.

So that particular record on that label totally makes sense.

[rostasi]

Not sure of the correctness of this...

For Alto is a jazz double-LP by composer/multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1969 and released on Delmark Records in 1971.^[1][2] Braxton performs the pieces on this album entirely on alto saxophone, with no additional musicians, instrumentation or overdubbing. Although other jazz musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, and Eric Dolphy, had recorded unaccompanied saxophone solos,^[3] For Alto  was the first jazz album composed solely of solo saxophone music.^[4]

^{But it references this book as having said that:}

Edited May 23 by rostasi

[Big Beat Steve]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Recorded at the same session as Picasso?

Let's question that assertion.

Or maybe Picasso was recorded a few years before release by Granz?

Otherwise, Moe Asch. That makes total sense.

I took the familiarity of the Selmer logi for granted, having played them fo 50+ years. But not everybody has had that exposure LOL!

Another factor - Selmer was at this time really upping the game of saxophone technology. From the Balance Action to the Super Action to the Mark VI, Selmer horns were always developing means for easier, faster fingering and a more easily even tone. They had competition from King, Conn, and Buescher, but Selmer pushed hard and eventually won the game (the King Super 20 was the last real competitor).

Ask anybody who has played other vintage horns - they can sound great and be played fluently, but it takes work. A Selmer (from Balanced Actions on) "solve" those "issues".

Selmer went off tack for a while in the 70s, and today's players have all kinds of options. But at the time under discussion here, Selmer was in a kind of war to prove there superior technology, and they were fighting it to win.

All that to say that if you wanted to position your product as a master horn for a master player, Coleman Hawkins was your guy.

So that particular record on that label totally makes sense.

About the presumed recording date: Remember this was the state of discographical knowledge as of 1950. Superseded long since.

As for the Selmer logo, I am aware the one on the record label is the one used on the instruments. As Selmer used a different (simpler) logo in their magazine ads in 1947/48 (actually using different typefaces here and there), however, these ads are no indicators of when the releases of the records on the Selmer label (using the same Selmer logo) may have started. I have just checked a few more Jazz Hots from that period, and the first one that features the actual Selmer logo in their instrument ads is from March 1949. Now when did releases on the Selmer label actually start and how long after their recording session did "Hawk Variations" stay in the can?

 

Edited May 24 by Big Beat Steve

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, rostasi said:

Not sure of the correctness of this...

For Alto is a jazz double-LP by composer/multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1969 and released on Delmark Records in 1971.^[1][2] Braxton performs the pieces on this album entirely on alto saxophone, with no additional musicians, instrumentation or overdubbing. Although other jazz musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, and Eric Dolphy, had recorded unaccompanied saxophone solos,^[3] For Alto  was the first jazz album composed solely of solo saxophone music.^[4]

^{But it references this book as having said that:}

I saw Braxton give a solo concert in Toronto. Can't remember what date but late '60s or early '70s.

[clifford_thornton]

I believe it to be correct, at least in the improvised music idiom. Lacy's solo LPs/recitals were directly inspired by Braxton, as I understand it. Parker, McPhee, Mitchell, Abe, Hemphill, Lake, Brown... all of those came later.

The Hawkins soli were released on shellac 10"s and I'd call those EPs at most, not albums. The Hawkins on Asch is essential material, IMO.

[Chuck Nessa]

Solo performance was encouraged from the earliest days of the AACM. Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors and Roscoe Mitchell recorded solos for my label in 1968. Braxton took the ball and ran with it in the next year.

[mhatta]

Come to think of it, Charlie Parker's first 'recording' was a solo saxophone - could it be a Hawk influence?  Anyway he plays "Body & Soul"...

 

[mikeweil]

Something different, from baroque to Branford Marsalis:

[T.D.]

These Takagi boxes have been marked down to more reasonable levels at DG:

I got the first one (at higher price) some time ago and enjoy/recommend it. Passed (and continue to) on the second (mostly duets) because the 3d disc of 3 is solo bass.