Pick your favorite, and tell me why...

Why? 'Cause it's so damn cool...

Rosstaman, spent the day listening to that Hawkins encounters Webster CD and all I can say is Wow! I am really loving that smooth sound and want more if I can find it. I can't seem to get the disc out of the CD player! Thanks so much. As for some of the other suggestions, I am ordering from Mapleshade in the morning, I just need to pick a few others so I can order over 4 discs. Is this fun or what? Oh, are you all getting these XRCD's in a regular store like Tower Records, or are you ordering them on the net?

Yes, it is a classic. There's a compilation cd called Saxophone Anthology on BMG (RCA Victor) label. It's not an audiophile quality recording, but it gives you a great variation of sax players such as:Sidney Bechet, Benny Carter, Paul Desmond/Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Lester Young and other great sax players of yesteryear. This cd can give you a good taste of some of the great sax players. You can then decide on which ones you'd like to pursue. As for current sax players, you may want to check out, Austin Backalley Blue by Sweetman with his South Side Groove Kings, on the Wildchild (Mapleshade) label. Stepping away from saxophone players, one of my very favorite jazz cd's is Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit on Roulette Jazz (Blue Note) Label. This 1961 remaster is incredible. The music is great and the recording quality is excellent.
Happy listening.
Ross

Dexter Gordon "our man in paris".
As a tenor player myself Dexter is my favorite player for his tone and feeling. This particular record (er CD) is full of great tunes. If you buy this CD and don't like it I'll eat my sax (I'm so confident you'll love it).

Another great player is Sonny Rollins. Try to pick up his first blue note album ... I think it's self titled.

Check out Over The Rainbow XRCD. It's only a floor bass and tenor(?) sax. Very dynamic. There's a spot or two where you'll almost jump out of your seat if your system has good dynamic headroom.

I think you can still find this cd on fimpression.com

How about Antholoygy of/to(?) Grover Washington. For a 20+ year old recording, you should be pretty impressed with it's sound quality.