Phasecorrect:
Recommending some "laid back, mellow sax jazz" isn't difficult, but it does require a couple of comments. First, we need to distinguish the players like Kenny G, who essentially play what I call "aural wallpaper", from the great jazz saxophonists who can play virtually everything. Second, I have a personal point of view that the greatest of the jazz saxophonists are distinguished by what they do with ballads, irrespective of their ability to play fast.
Third, and last, there are very few recordings featuring solely or mostly ballads, although there a couple of exceptions that I will mention below. With these points in mind, here is a partial list that I hope you will find useful:
1. Lester Young -- the guy that essentially invented the "cool", lighter style of playing on the sax (Coleman Hawkins was the other father of the modern sax, developing a darker tone with more "muscle" and vibrato) -- listen to some of Lester's work backing Billie Holiday, or some of his small group work during the 1940's and early 1950's
2. Ben Webster -- Ben's late-career work during the 1950's features some extraordinary work on ballads
3. Charlie Parker -- people don't usually think of Bird as a great ballad player, but he was -- for an entire album of slower pieces, listen to "Charlie Parker with Strings"
4. Dexter Gordon -- known as LTD (Long Tall Dexter), Dexter was a great ballad player, whose slow, smoky tone was very much like his speaking voice
5. Zoot Sims -- maybe my favorite ballad player, Zoot had a wonderful, warm tone -- among his best recordings for ballads, check out the albums he did for Pablo during the mid-1950's, including "Warm Tenor", "Suddenly It's Spring", and "Quietly There"
6. Lee Konitz -- one of the few "original" stylists in the "cool" school, Konitz came to prominence in the late 1940's as a member of Lenny Tristano's group -- Konitz has released some good recordings during the 1990's
7. Stan Getz -- one of the true giants on the sax, Getz was a superb ballad player -- his more mellow, ballad numbers can be found throughout his many recordings, but if you need a place to start, I suggest his final release, "People Time", recorded with Kenny Barron at the Club Montmartre in Copenhagen
8. Art Pepper -- Pepper's work on ballads is rich, intense, and moving -- if I had to pick the work of only one sax player to take to the proverbial "desert island", it would be Art Pepper's -- for a good taste of his ballad work, check out his recording called "Shoes of the Fisherman", which was released under the name of Milcho Leviev, the nominal group leader (for contractual reasons)
9. Charles Lloyd -- Lloyd has released a number of excellent recordings since 1991, almost all of which feature slower, "mellow" numbers -- this guy just keeps cranking out beautiful music that is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying to me
10. Jan Garbarek -- a Norwegian saxophonist whose cool, chromatically-tinged sound makes me think of Norway's fjords -- I don't have a specific recommendation for his CD's, except to say I'd start with his 1970's - 1980's work for the ECM label
If you'd like some further suggestions for specific recordings, please feel free to drop me a private E-mail.
