Stevie Wonder (check out Superstition), Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Earth Wind & Fire...

 

Blood, Sweat & Tears, Average White Band, Chicago (first 3 albums in particular.)

 

Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns
The band's made up of some of the top musicians here in Las Vegas.
Check out this video to get an idea of what they're doing.

 

Hey, great tip! Just checked out Santa Fe and Fat City on that link you sent me! Thanks! Why aren't these guys more widely known?

 

Greetings
Cruise youtube for Steely Dan's Live Performances...

check these for starters:

Cold Blood from the Bay Area of Northern California

JB Horns:Maceo,Fred Wesley and Peewee Ellis

There are quite a few others but its late... if I get a chance tomorrow I will do some more updates ... Like Kool & the Gang etc.

All the Best

 

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

 

Bill Chase, of course.

 

How about EWF, great horns and recognizable anywhere...

 

Nrbq.

 

Wayne Cochran's CC Riders

 

There are great horn sections, and then there are great horn arrangements. Sometimes they intersect, such as on Blood Sweat & Tears, particularly their second album which includes great songs such as "God Bless The Child", "Spinning Wheel", "And When I Die" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy".

For some nice examples of seemingly ordinary horn players but incredibly effective horn arrangements, check out Van Morrison's "Moondance" album (forget the overplayed title track, and listen to Caravan, And It Stoned Me, and Into The Mystic). Another example for me in this category is Joe Cocker's version of "The Letter" from his album "Joe Cocker: Ultimate Collection".

I second the recommendation for Chicago's first three albums, and also add their fifth one to the list. Their second one (silver cover) is my favorite.

I really like the horn arrangements on Bruce Springsteen's "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and on Huey Lewis' version of "Heart of Rock and Roll" from his "Live at 25" album.

 

Scope out some Paul Butterfield or Lamont Cranston Band.

 

Broken Promise Band - Woody Woodford saxes, Lee Thornberg (valve brass) ....
Gumbo (LA band) - Woody Woodford saxes, Jimmy Roberts saxes and Rick Braun trp

Listen to a great horn section on a Etta James song "Suger On The Floor". Woody Woodford, Lee Thornberg + some other hornplayers I can't recognize.

The Coral Reefer Horns (Jimmy Buffet): Amy Lee saxes, Tom Mitchell saxes, trp

Texascali Horns: Joe Sublett (saxes) and Darrell Leonard (trp)

The Uptown Horns: Crispin Cioe sax, Arno Hecht sax, Bob Funk trb, Larry Etkin trp.

 

One of the coolest reviews about a band that I've ever read was a music critic's review of a Chicago concert who wrote: "listening to the horn section warm up is worth the price of admission".

 

Thanks guys, great tips! I'm busily tracking some of them down on iTunes this morning. How did I forget Earth Wind & Fire? They're great. Also, thanks for reminding me how great B,S&T and Chicago were; I grew up on that music and had forgotten just how tight those bands were, HarmonizerNJ, and Mick!

Does anyone here like Might Might Bosstones? The horns sound like they might be pretty tight but on the CDs I was loaned they're completely buried under the band's ska/punk guitars its hard to tell...

 

Bill, great tip on Southside Johnny and the jukes...local indie record store I just called has a couple of their cd's reserved for me.

 

The earlier stuff is more horn driven... Don't wanna go home, This time its for real, the Jukes... after say Love is a Sacrifice (and ignore Trash it Up!) the horns played a lesser part. If you can catch them live they are still out there playing their butts off.

 

The Bomb Squad

http://www.bombsquadonline.com/bios.html

 

Any place where the Memphis Horns show up.

http://www.memphishorns.com/Welcome.html

Delbert McClinton

http://delbert.com/

 

Phantom Blues Band

Joe Sublett!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/phantombluesband

 

White Elephant (with the young Brecker brothers).

 

The Brecker Bros.? In a Horn Section? This I gotta hear!

 

Awesome!!

 

KC and the Sunshine Band had a pretty good horn section. Yeah, I know, Disco- but they could really play!

 

Whenever I hear rock with a great horn section I just assume it's chicago, and I'm right over 50% of the time....

 

Yeah, if you're talking about "rock." But in blues, jump blues, funk, jazz, etc, there were many great horn sections, way too many to list, and a lot have been lost to history. Countless jump bands in the '40s, early '50s had great horn sections. Personally when I was growing up in the 60's I much preferred Blood Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, the short-lived Electric Flag band, & James Brown over Chicago. Not even a contest there...

 

This is probably too old school for you, but the guys who practically invented rock horn section playing are all over 50's and 60's New Orleans rock and R&B recordings -- from Little Richard through Fats Domino and Ernie K-Doe and all the greats. Often, Allen Toussaint is in there somewhere, either as producer and/or piano player, also as songwriter. The horn players are people like Plas Johnson, Herb Hardesty, Lee Allen ...

Someone already mentioned the Memphis Horns. Check out any 60's R&B or soul records, especially anything on Stax. "The Memphis Horns appeared on nearly every recording for Stax - with Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Sam and Dave and others - as well as on other releases, including The Doobie Brothers' What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits and U2's Rattle and Hum, as well as a few solo records." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memphis_Horns

And there were the JB horns (previously mentioned). There's also the Muscle Shoals Horns. Dig a little. There's a ton of great rock horn section recordings out there.

 

This is probably too old school for you, but the guys who practically invented rock horn section playing are all over 50's and 60's New Orleans rock and R&B recordings -- from Little Richard through Fats Domino and Ernie K-Doe and all the greats. Often, Allen Toussaint is in there somewhere, either as producer and/or piano player, also as songwriter. The horn players are people like Plas Johnson, Herb Hardesty, Lee Allen ...

And I think I have become a Lee Allen fanatic- man, I love his sound! J

Lee is unique. One of the greatest experiences for me was playing in the section with Lee Allen, Herb Hardesty and Dave Bartholomew. These guys really did invent the rock and roll horn section. I learnt how to use tightness and looseness at different times when appropriate.

 

Thanks everybody! You've opened up a whole lotta music to me that I'll be busily hunting down...maybe for weeks! White Elephant and the Jukes were revelations to me, as were Electric Flag Band w/ James Brown (never heard of 'em, but a buddy had an old LP and now after a couple of listens can't get 'em out of my head). And I think I have become a Lee Allen fanatic- man, I love his sound! Just goes to show me that there is still great music out there, you just have to leave the well-traveled iTunes path to find much of it!
Again, thanks everyone for your input!

 

... Electric Flag Band w/ James Brown (never heard of 'em, but a buddy had an old LP and now after a couple of listens can't get 'em out of my head).

Oops, I worded it poorly. I didn't mean to imply the Electric Flag Band included James Brown. I was making a list. Electric Flag (Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, etc, with a horn section) was one suggestion, James Brown (with his own horn section) another, separate suggestion. Sorry for any confusion.

By the way check out some of the earliest James Brown you can find. His later soul/funk material was great, but he started out more in the jump blues area.