I voted tenor based on who I enjoy listening to. I really don't pay much mind to it aside from My Favorite Things where I wish he'd grabbed a bigger axe.
How about tenor AND baritone at the same time David Jackson from VDGG and elsewherr David Jackson (musician) - Wikipedia
Is Stan Getz considered to be sort of a lightweight (not anywhere near Kenny G.-level lightweight, but still)? I love his Bossa Nova stuff, but he doesn't seem to on the level of the greats (mentioned in this thread) from what I've heard.
I voted tenor, but my favorite is actually the bass clarinet (I know it isn't a saxophone, but it's usually played by sax players, so I tend to think of it in the same terms). I can enjoy any of the saxophones, but I usually have some difficulty with the soprano sax, even when played by greats like Coltrane or Shorter. Could it be leftover trauma from early exposure to Kenny G? Possibly, though I'm not entirely sure.
So, question for the group.... It seems some of the greatest practitioners of soprano are also top names in tenor. Coltrane is the obvious mark here, but there are many more. Yet it doesn't seem like many are known for both tenor and alto. Wouldn't you think it would be more natural to excel at more adjacent instruments? Or is it that alto and tenor are close enough to each other that an artist can reach a broader range with the same effort by doing tenor and soprano? Having only tried tenor myself, I'm not familiar with fingerings; are there different fingerings across the family that could also account for this? Just curious.
It would be too easy to go for tenor given Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Rollins, Coltrane, Dexter, Getz, Ayler, Sanders, Shepp, Shorter, David Murray, David S Ware, Charles Gayle...but I'm going for alto. Not only are some of my favourite, now passed, sax players on alto - Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Art Pepper, Jimmy Lyons - but people I listen to now tend to be altoists. Matana Roberts, Greg Ward, Darius Jones, Emmanuel Wilkins, Rob Brown plus the older guys Roscoe Mitchell, Braxton, Threadgill. Mind you...James Brandon Lewis and Dave Rempis (primarily) are tenor men so it isn't all settled.
Nope. Well, yeah he is. You only have to listen to some of his 50s albums e.g. West Coast Jazz, The Steamer or the 60s/70s with Chick Corea in the band - Sweet Rain, Captain Marvel to see that he is one of the finest post-war tenorists.
This is a good thread-within-a-thread: Getz was a monster player, but due to his “easy listening” output he’s gotten short shrift from some less-informed critical sources. Two other similar examples are altoist Paul Desmond and baritonist Gerry Mulligan.
