Best Sax Jazz

Pbb:

Your mention of "The Sound of Jazz" is very interesting -- you are one of the very few people I have encountered that knows of this recording done by Leonard Bernstein, done as part of the "Omnibus" TV series in the mid-1950's. I have used this recording in a jazz appreciation class that I used to teach, and it provided a great "bridge" for classical music fans to understand some of the compositional and performance elements of jazz. About two years ago, I talked about "The Sound of Jazz" in this forum, and several people asked me to make CD copies from the LP for them. One of those people was a man from Texas, whose son was about to leave for college where he would have a classical music scholarship. He wrote me several months later to say that his son had learned a lot about jazz from the recording, and planned to take some jazz classes while in college. So, Lennie still continues to influence people years after his passing...

Sd ... your comment that jazz is dying. I can only give a personal perspective, and I really have a limited exposure to jazz, but to my ears since the 60s jazz has just sounded more and more like musicians showing off technical prowess, rather than creating music. Almost all modern jazz I've heard turns me off completely ... it's musician's music (hey, and I'm a tenor sax player so I do appreciate the technical brilliance).
Give me Dexter Gordon, Gerry Mulligan, or Sonny Rollins .. to me that was inventive music. Hey, I even like the Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller big band stuff ... so musical, with bands working as a superb team. But more up to date stuff just sounds like Joe Satriani has taken up the sax.

Perhaps it's related to how people are learning jazz now, per your comments, perhaps I'm just a jazz luddite.
You know, I could say the same about classical music ... modern classical just seems to be an exercise in musical mathematics, and has lost the emotion of Beethoven, or Tchaikovsky.

Seandtaylor...
By "modern jazz," do you mean anything "since the 60s?" If so, that would toss out a good bit of John Coltrane, a good bit of Sonny Stitt....

Last time I was in the Village, I went to Small's (you NYC inhabitants will know the place). The young kids playing jazz there on some nights are just incredible. They earn nothing (or next to nothing), but are playing for the love of it. And it is incredibly good music, deeply heartfelt, and as far as I can tell, respectful of the long history of jazz.

After a couple of shows one evening at Small's, I walked over to the Blue Note Cafe....now, that's "corporate" jazz, for lack of a better term, and was all about technique.

CP .... I didn't have a particular date in mind, but probably anything of the late 70s onward, though to me the 50s and 60s was the heyday. As I said I'm not well versed in jazz, but then again nothing I've heard on borrowed CDs or FM has made me want to explore any further .. it just sounds like a blur of notes ... fast for the sake of showing off.

Sonny Rollins, Art Pepper, Stan Getz ..... there are so many great sax players. Each for their own particular style and or skills. I love them all. However, I always find myself returning to Ben Webster. Particularily 'At the Renissance'. This loose, relaxed extremely open recording remains a staple on my playlist. Ben's 'Soulville' is also quite fantasic. A great late night groove is gauranteed.