Saxophones aren't expressive, saxophone players are.
I'm also confused by your term R&B and then ask about contemporary. Most people tend to think of it as not a contemporary genre in relation to the saxophone. Of course the term has been hijacked to mean something else now in regard to vocal and pop music, but R&B saxophone tends to mean players such as Big J, Lee Allen, King Curtis, Eddie Vinson, Louis Jordan, Sam Taylor, Red Prysock.
Great R&B horns? Bundy, Kohlert, Weltklang, Buescher, Martin, Conn
