They had been born the same year and grown to be so different in temperament. Yet they were, at the core, equal in their obsession with the inner workings of music theory, and in their need for musical challenge and surprise. Save for nine months in when the trumpeter unceremoniously fired him due to his heroin use impeding his appearance and performance—after which Coltrane kicked his habit cold turkey—their relationship remains one of the most fruitful and significant in jazz history.
Monk's tutelage—more direct and patient than Miles—helped him grasp music riddled with strange melodic leaps and rhythmic breaks, and appealed with its own logic.
The timing could not have been better. For Coltrane, it was like pouring high-octane into a turbo-charged engine. By the end of , Coltrane was While Miles tried to keep him in his group, it was clear he was itching to go his own way. He began gigging with his own bands, and continued writing material. He began to focus more on the highly emotional, melody-driven influence of the avant-garde jazz of the time, inspired greatly by the music of Ornette Coleman—the Texas-born saxophonist who had turned the jazz world on its ear upon arriving in New York City in His release schedule balanced fiery, live recordings Live!
It was a four-part suite, the first of a series of larger works that held to a higher intent and focus. Their relationship would prove to be one of the most prodigious and prolific husband-wife pairings of the jazz world.
After his death, she carried his music and universalist message forward in her own way, fusing modern jazz, Indian ragas, and Vedic devotional songs on eighteen very special albums, and eventually put her career aside to establish and lead an ashram of spiritual followers in southern California. A Love Supreme was atypical for a jazz recording in many ways. The album cover featured a letter to the listener and a poem, both penned by Coltrane and both espousing a universalist spirituality, and addressing his role as a musician.
Before the year was out, both Tyner and Jones departed: Alice took over the piano seat, the young Rashied Ali was added on drums, and Pharoah Sanders on second saxophone. Coltrane himself remained a humanist, more in tune with the non-violent philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Through the last months of his life, Coltrane continued to push ahead with sessions that swung between tracks that could be grating and intense, and sonic tapestries deeply introspective and calm.
The musical seeds that sprouted during the A Love Supreme sessions predicted where Coltrane would go with his music. His chanting was heard again on the album Om. His love of poetry resurfaced on Kulu Se Mama. He was often in pain, suffering from liver cancer, as it was later learned. He played a Selmer Mark VI for many years, but in later years he became an enthusiastic endorser of the Yamaha Custom Saxophone , after the 82ZUL model was designed in partnership with him.
This 82ZUL is far, far superior. An interesting case of a highly respected player swapping a classic vintage horn for a modern saxophone. For many years he used an unmodified New York Meyer 5M mouthpiece with a medium chamber, which was given to him by a friend in the s.
Albright is at the smoother, more commercial end of the jazz spectrum, and is another big name who opts for a modern, rather than vintage, saxophone.
He has his own Gerald Albright Signature Series model made by the Salt Lake City-based company Cannonball, which come adorned with semi-precious stones! Albright uses a Fat Neck, also made by Cannonball, which has the octave key on the underside of the crook and is inspired by the design of the King Super Although some players appreciate the consistency of synthetic reeds, most high level saxophonists still prefer the sound and feel of cane.
And although we tend to think of him as a soft, delicate saxophone player — probably in part because of those gorgeous and sensitive solos on the famous bossa nova records — apparently, he actually made a huge sound with unbelievable projection if you heard him live.
His very hard reeds — he was known to play from a 3. Borgani , a small Italian company, designed the Joe Lovano series especially for the great American tenor player, using Pearl Silver alloy with Gold 24k keys. These newer horns are made like an older horn with handmade, hand-pounded brass but with modern mechanisms. He plays a Francois Louis mouthpiece check out their ligatures here! His hard strength Alexander reeds, combined with his wide mouthpiece opening, must surely make his setup feel like quite hard work!
Thanks for checking out this guide to the set ups of some of the jazz saxophone greats and we hope it will provide some extra insight when choosing a saxophone, reed or mouthpiece yourself! When appropriate, these musicians are quoted and name-checked inside the article itself!
This post may contain affiliate links. Info here. Table of Contents. Charlie Parker Due to his well-documented substance addictions, Parker would often pawn his saxophone, meaning that he frequently ended up playing on a borrowed or cheaply-acquired horn. Hard to find a consensual answer to my question. So, I did a little poll on Facebook with my saxophonist friends:. The only scientific study on adjectives describing the tone of well-known musicians was led by American psychologist Mark C.
Gridley in His objective was to evaulate whether non-musician listeners who did not know the musicians in question would use the same words to describe the tone of emblematic saxophonists. We will take note that the recording chosen for Coltrane is the famous Pursuance , third track of A Love Supreme. Of all tested saxophonists, it is however with John Coltrane that listeners tend to agree!
Testers spontaneously use the same words: intense , rough , sharp , and cutting. On a second test, this time with musicians taking a jazz course, the results are also the same: everyone agrees that Coltrane's sound is hard , rough , and quite bright.
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