I've gotten back into recording again after a 16 year hiatus, and since I can't shred solos I've been using sax samples for melodic breaks, sometimes layered with other instruments.
Back in Ye Olde Daye (the 80s) sax was everywhere, and I really loved the way post-punk and new wave bands were using alto sax as if they were trying to mock Kenny G from the other side of the charts.
Many fads have made a comeback... Is it time for the sax to come back yet? Or has it happened already and I just don't know about it?
Geez, I couldn’t wait for it to fade away in the 80’s, it was everywhere. There was all this worry then that the synthesizer was going to replace the guitar, but instead there were sax solos all over the place. The most annoying one was on Glen Frey’s “You Belong To The City”, but then again anything having to with The Eagles was annoying(yes, I’m on Team Dude). It was a holdover from the 70’s, when there was a lot of 50’s vibe coming back, I assume because that was the childhood of many players then.
Andy Mackay with Roxy Music was perfect for them, and even though Bowie wasn’t a great player, what he did added some flavor, whereas David Sanborn on “Young Americans” didn’t do much for me, a perfect example of that 70’s cliche stuff. With the Kenny G thing, yes the sax became the signature sound of all that tepid smooth jazz.
Sax certainly got a boost when that ‘swing’ revival came and went in the 90’s, but it’s slipped off to the realm of esoterica since fewer people want to use real instruments. I don’t hate sax at all, in fact I love rowdy honking stuff from Little Richard to King Curtis to The Sonics, and all the out, shrieking psychotic jazz from Coltrane to Brotzman and beyond, but that ain’t pop. It was always huge in the ska revival. Matt Morrish with the current English Beat lineup is a monster, and I saw jazzer Kamasi Washington a couple of years ago, he was great.
