[tbelbin44]

Hellooo SOTW!!

Have been playing sax for 11 years now and playing/listening to jazz for about 3-4 years and have learnt so much already...
Basically I just wanted to know what jazz musicians/saxophonists people listen to who they find inspiring...i listen to a wide range already, including grover washington jr., gerald Albright, Charlie Parker (of course!) etc... but i was just wondering whether there were any others that i maybe haven't come across yet...

Also if anyone could recommend any good 'jazz books' that i could read just to learn a bit more about the subject... and lastly any playing material i should try out, i mean i can play through the real books but anything else maybe that anyone has found interesting/challenging/enjoyable to play??

Thanks everyone, hope to hear from some people,

Tom

 

[Oric Muso]

Short answer - yes, there's a bunch of players you don't know about. Check out Dave Gelly's book Masters of Jazz Saxophone if you want to read up about some more - or pick up a Penguin Guide to Jazz.

There's a good bit of stuff to read hear http://www.amazon.co.uk/Improvising-Jazz-Fireside-Jerry-Coker/dp/0671628291/ref=pd_sim_b2
There's plenty of books that have exercises and patterns to play through. Here's one for tenor with a CD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Saxoph...=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316998566&sr=1-8
Also
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Ja...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316998659&sr=1-2
And look for one called Jazzology about chords etc.
After that there are the Playalong books from Jamey Aebersold which are used a lot. (Start with book 1 if you havent' seen it already. ) I like the similar Hal Leonard Playalongs which have backing track with and without melody which can be handy for beginners.
Also check out all the asrticles posted on the other bit of this SOTW website and the likes of Tim Price and Pete Thomas sites whcih have a lot of useful stuff.

 

[Agent27]

The Charlie Parker Ominibook is pretty much a standard. It's referred to as the "bebop bible" because it contains many solos from one of the primary inventors of the bebop language. Make sure to get the Eb version though, even if you play tenor. You want to see what Bird was actually thinking.

 

[Wade Cornell]

If seeking inspiration for your playing you may want to seek great players who are playing in the present tense rather than players of 50 - 60 years ago or their imitators. Players from that time developed some outstanding technique, which is valuable to learn, but stylistically rather tired. I can assure you that those players from 50 to 60 years ago didn't look back to the styles of 1900 and think they should stay stuck there. Check out Jan Garbarek and see what's been happening with him.

 

[robscott]

These two Hal Crook books are good: 'Ready, aim, improvise' and 'How to Improvise'
they have stuff that you don't see in many other books, i.e. how to use space, time feel.
All the etude books by Greg Fishman are great. they are etudes written over common standards and I found them great to play along with.
Most players I met learned from listening to the contempary players ( in my case the new york guys in the 70's Grossman, Liebman and Brecker ) then you work your way through Henderson, Shorter, coltrane, rollins until you arive at Pres and Hawk.