Best Saxaphone Player in Progressive

     I don't like comparing musicians like race horses generally, but for the
sake of discussion, it seems to me that the reed players don't get the
attention here they deserve, standing in the shadows of guitar divas and
glittery-caped keyboardists. Their contribution was and is however very
important, and while there may be a lot of great jazz saxists, not many
can really rock as well. But I think that Collin's contributions to Crimson's
Islands and Lizard are brilliant examples of creative reedmanship that
rocks, and helped make progressive stand apart in it's originality and
craftsmanship from other rock of the time. And what would Soft Machine
have been without the impassioned wailings of Elton Dean? I couldn't
think of too many other names than these, if you've other favorites,
please recommend them. I didn't include Wayne Shorter though, because
it wouldn't have been fair to the others... (Oops, Jackson is twice, and I
can't edit it!)

Edited by RoyalJelly

John Helliwell (Supertramp)

john zorn!

The saxophone player in the Flower Kings is pretty amazing.

I don't know his/her name though.

     Yeah, actually the two Ians should be there, MacDonald and
Underwood, but I only thought of them afterwards, and apparently you
can't edit or correct the poll once it's launched...

    Actually, I've long pushed for Zorn's inclusion in the archives, but have
always been rebuffed with the objection that he's not progressive, but
"avant-garde". In light of the importance of projects of his such as Naked
City, that have an inestimable influence on modern progressive, I find it
absurd to shift Zorn to the avant-garde ghetto, but that's the reason I
didn't include him on the list. But good that he comes up again for
discussion...I was thinking more of the old 70s sax masters.

Syzygy wrote: Elton Dean gets my vote from the choices listed there, mainly for his wonderfully expressive alto playing on side 1 of Soft Machine 5. Didier Malherbe is also brilliant, but is truly outstanding as a flautist. John Zorn is another giant, but wasn't an option on the poll.

I can remember that Fourth (masterpiece) features also some excellent sax parts.

RoyalJelly wrote:     Actually, I've long pushed for Zorn's inclusion in the archives, but have always been rebuffed with the objection that he's not progressive, but "avant-garde". In light of the importance of projects of his such as Naked City, that have an inestimable influence on modern progressive, I find it absurd to shift Zorn to the avant-garde ghetto, but that's the reason I didn't include him on the list. But good that he comes up again for discussion...I was thinking more of the old 70s sax masters.

He's now in the archive - Joren added him not so long ago. Not the full discography, but a pretty fair sample of it including Naked City.

I'd have to go with Jackson from VdGG, he did some really impressive stuff.  Especially with the structure of VdGG, everytime I listen to that band, the structure never ceases to amaze me.

aahhhhh...


Chris Wood - Traffic   anyone?