A blowing session????

@larsman

I’m a big fan of Miles’ work in the late 60’s and early 70’s; just ordered the Vinyl Me Please box set of Electric Miles Davis, which has his albums from ’In a Silent Way’ to ’Get Up With It’....

That’s one of the great things about Miles -- there’s something to please just about any Jazz fan!

@crustycoot

I never developed the ear for the saxophonist’s individuality as you describe it, but I do have that ear for the electric guitar masters

It’s purely a matter of exposure/repeated listening. If you can tell the difference between P. Green and D. Kirwan, between EC and Duane on "Layla", between Andy Powell and Ted Turner on "Argus", you can learn to tell the difference between Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. Of course, you have to like the music enough to begin with, otherwise you won't have any reason to put in the time for this process to occur. 

@stuartk - and I'm not even a jazz fan! I like those records because they don't sound like what I think of as 'jazz'; they're more like Grateful Dead space jams. The only other 'jazz' album I have is the newly released Rhino hi-fi version of Herbie Hancock's 'Crossings', which I like for the same reason as those Miles ones....

how much of this stuff is simply a ’blowin’ session from the artists who are playing the brass instruments, particularly the sax??

But the sax is a woodwind?

@immatthewj  Yes, technically the sax is in the woodwind family. Although this classification is simply because it uses a wood reed, but when was the last time anyone saw a wooden sax?? Almost all of the ones I know of are made of brass.Which is exactly why I referred to it as a brass instrument, not referencing the family it belongs to. 

@daveyf 

but when was the last time anyone saw a wooden sax?? Almost all of the ones I know of are made of brass

Exactly!

I'm in jazz venues pretty often and they're definitely made of brass. As you note it is a "reed" instrument.

Charles