Bring back the sax!

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For too long we have repressed this 80's phenomenon. For how long are we to continue to pretend it never happened? That every second song in 1985 didn't have a man in a powder blue suit, with a sax hanghing, guitar-like, from his neck, which he pretended to play like an air guitar until the lead sax break came up - and then it was all brass instrument shape throwing! Bring back the sax!!

― moley (moley), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

You belong to the city
Concrete under your feet

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

I just broke mine. :(

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

People are still having sax.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

i met james valentine once. he seemed nice.

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

( = models sax player for those not versed in pig's arsery)

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:41 (twenty years ago)

G.E. SMITH AND THE SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE BAND!

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

http://home.att.net/~droboogie1/bigman.jpg

― jim wentworth (wench), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

Ugh no! Good riddance.

― phil jones (interstar), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

If there are but ten instances of saxophone well-used in rock music, the lord shall spare it.

But what if there are only nine?

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

blazin sax

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 04:50 (twenty years ago)

There are HUNDREDS! A tenor sax has a range roughly identical to that of the guitar, and can easily hold its own against the noisiest axe, match it riff for riff and shriek for shriek, and doesn't even require eeelectricity. To quote Lester Bangs: "HONK! BLAT! SQUEEEE!...HONK! HONK! HONKHONKHONKSQUAKSQUONK!....SQUEEEE-ONK! SHKRIEEEE!...GRRUGHRRGLONK-EE-ERNK!"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 06:53 (twenty years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000A6OB22.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― James.Cobo (jamescobo), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 07:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm all for it, as long as sax solos from now on sound like excerpts from Peter Brotzmann's "Machine Gun".

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

Sax is weak. What we need are trombone solos.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

WRONG.

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

THIRD WAVE SKA: NEVER FORGET

― latebloomer: Deutsch Bag (latebloomer), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

Sax is weak. What we need are trombone solos.
OTM. Hit Me, Fred

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

The trombone is an instrument of POWER that is rarely used to its full potential. Especially not in ska bands.

http://www.ed.sc.edu/kridel/images/caroli4.jpg

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

There are very few rock bands that could not be improved by the addition of a good horn section.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

I just got a trombone trio album in the mail the other day. Killer. As for saxophone, I'm all for it. I was extremely disappointed by the shameful under-employment of Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich on Sonic Youth's Murray Street.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

I just read that Fred Wesley book and there are a few stories where some tenor sax player had just quit some band and Fred would say "I can replace him" and they'd tell him "I see a trombone in your hand. I don't see no sax" and then tell him it was scientifically impossible to play certain solos on the trombone at which point he would prove them wrong.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

> There are very few rock bands that could not be improved by the addition of a good horn section.

Agreed. This is one important reason why Fishbone was so extraordinary.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

What's the trombone trio, Phil?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

Agreed. This is one important reason why Fishbone was so extraordinary

I was thinking more of something like Exile on Main Street.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Not to toot my own horn, but there's also this thread

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

That Fred Wesley anecdote is amazing! (If it's true.) Too bad the name "Fred" doesn't have the same inherent musicality as "Maceo", or he would've got more JB invitations to "Blow your horn!"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

I think "scientifically impossible" was my exaggeration, but they were still pretty insistent that it couldn't be done.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

I think the trombone gets a bad rap by focusing on imitating sax players. Being able to do the linear J.J. Johnson thing is cool, but the trombone is good at its own thing that other instruments aren't! Liking really strong long notes, and sliding around for expressiveness, and a really awesome sounding high register. Trombonists, don't be self-haters!

(not to take anything away from Fred, I'm sure there weren't many skilled, jazz-influenced trombonists in the r&b scene when he was coming up.)

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

>What's the trombone trio, Phil?

The Joe Fiedler Trio, Plays The Music Of Albert Mangelsdorff, on Clean Feed.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes. That song "Mars" that they do is rough stuff.

― bendy (bendy), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

Your search - "tim capello" saxophone - did not match any documents.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 06:58 (twenty years ago)

then it was all brass instrument shape throwing!

Except the saxophone is a woodwind, not a brass instrument!

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

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