A note for 4Yanx: the LP release of Pepper's "Shoes of the Fisherman" has excellent audio quality, but it unfortunately does not include perhaps the best number from the CD release -- an extended, absolutely heart-wrenching ballad dedicated to Art's wife (his second, I think). Since you are also a Pepper fan, I strongly recommend that you also acquire the CD version of "Shoes", if only to hear the missing ballad.
In my post above, I meant to include a comment that I was not deliberately leaving out some of the best known sax players, such as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Phil Woods, etc. Each of these men can do some terrific things with mellower pieces, but they are not best known for their abilities with ballads. Coltrane, for example, has an entire CD of ballads which is certainly worth hearing.
The two alto sax players that I did leave out, and it's a major oversight on my part, are Johnny Hodges, who was nicknamed "the Lily Pons of the alto" for his sweet sound, and Benny Carter. Hodges did exemplary things with ballads, and he can be heard soloing on many of Duke Ellington's recordings, as well as in the small group recordings he did (mostly for Verve Records) during the 1950's (which have been re-mastered and issued as a limited edition box set on Mosaic Records).
Benny Carter established his reputation during the Swing era, but was able to adapt his style to bop and has had a long, distinguished career as an "elder statesman" of jazz. Benny is another great ballad player that richly deserves to be on anyone's "best of" list of jazz saxophonists. One of Benny's best recordings is "Benny Carter: Jazz Giant", recorded for Contemporary Records in 1957-58 (the recording engineer was Roy DuNann, who was responsible for many fine jazz recordings by such artists as Art Pepper, Frank Sinatra, etc.). This recording features Benny in the august company of Ben Webster, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Leroy Vinnegar, and Shelly Manne, and to say it has some fine music is an understatement. And, for the vinyl-heads reading this post, you should know that Analogue Productions has a limited edition LP re-master of this recording which has superb sound to go with the great music.
