[Neil Sharpe]

Check out John Laughter at the 1:03 mark! It was performances like this that made me, and so many others, want to pick up the sax in the first place!

John's contributions to the sax community are truly phenomenal. His absolutely invaluable history of sax solos from 1955-2015, has been widely recognized and hailed by his fellow players, such as Plas Johnson who wrote the Preface;

" Preface
Plas Johnson: John Laughter is performing a great service for the many unheralded and unrecognized sax soloists who played on hit records over the decades. For many years the record companies excluded the names of all musicians on their records. There are albums that I played on where the commentary on the back cover speaks about the artist and tunes, then proceeds to describe the recording technique and equipment - nothing about the musicians...So, many thanks to John Laughter for his efforts in digging out and publishing this information."

and many more:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=648315608542027&story_fbid=648414278532160

Plus, his great "Rock & Roll Saxophone" book/CD, available from many outlets, continues to inspire and lead.

Thanks John!

 

[SHOZZA]

John is a really nice guy, he will go out of his way to find answers to your questions. I've corresponded with John a few times over the years, and he's found out things about players for me I would never have known otherwise. Plus he's a great sax player as well. We sure owe him our gratitude and many thanks.:cheers:
Rob.

 

[saxphil]

John is a very nice guy... very helpful to saxmen,

 

[pontius]

Check out John Laughter at the 1:03 mark! It was performances like this that made me, and so many others, want to pick up the sax in the first place!

John's great! At 1:03, are you sure it's not an audience like this that made you want to play sax?

 

[CashSax]

CHEERS to John !!!

...and to Neil for supplying the Vid..

 

[GT]

John's great! At 1:03, are you sure it's not an audience like this that made you want to play sax?

I've been there, albeit some years ago. Although I'm pretty sure it wasn't my playing...I'm thinking it was probably alcohol related.

And, yes! Cheers to John!!

 

[John Laughter]

Well darn :cheers: I didn't see this coming. Thanks Neil and everyone for the kind comments. Just good old fun Rock & Roll. I enjoy many styles of music but party music is a lot of fun and even better with the dancers :mrgreen: Thanks again and glad to help when and where I can!

And be sure to send for your free PDF copy of "The History of Top 40 Saxophone Solos-1955-2015".

Send a PM with your email address. Thanks again :bluewink:

And a special thanks to Neil Sharpe for all of his musical contributions to SOTW over the years. We appreciate you!

 

[Frankmsax]

John is the best, great player and super nice guy. I wish I could see him and hang with him but live too far away. I have his original book Rock and Roll saxophone from many years ago (came with a cassette tape at the time) and it has some really good stuff in it. I have been in touch with him a few times in recent years and he always goes out of his way to help with any questions or constructive criticism .
Keep on rocking that sax John !!

 

[John Laughter]

Well hey Frank. Many thanks. I appreciate it. Glad to help if and when I can. That is what I really like about SOTW. Many players always ready to share their ideas which is the way it should be in music.

I still have a few of the older books with cassette tapes just fortunate that Centerstream Publishing felt that it would do some good and it is (now w/ CD) still on the market after all these years. Some other good ones are;

“Hot Licks” by Steve Douglas (VHS Tape)
“Beginning Rock Sax” by Scott Page (VHS Tape)
“Hot Rock Sax” by Tim Price
“Rock and Roll Saxophone” by the late great Boots Randolph

There may be some others that don’t come to mind at this time. Maybe others will know? And of course there are many excellent books on blues and jazz that are very helpful.

The more ideas one gets the better since there is always more than one way to learn a given technique. But most of all, countless hours of listening to recordings and live gigs of the real pros of all styles of music (both old and new) to pick up their ideas.

Thanks again Frank and we will keep rockin’!

 

[soybean]

Nice “fan club” John has.

 

[Frankmsax]

Well hey Frank. Many thanks. I appreciate it. Glad to help if and when I can. That is what I really like about SOTW. Many players always ready to share their ideas which is the way it should be in music.

I still have a few of the older books with cassette tapes just fortunate that Centerstream Publishing felt that it would do some good and it is (now w/ CD) still on the market after all these years. Some other good ones are;

“Hot Licks” by Steve Douglas (VHS Tape)
“Beginning Rock Sax” by Scott Page (VHS Tape)
“Hot Rock Sax” by Tim Price
“Rock and Roll Saxophone” by the late great Boots Randolph

There may be some others that don’t come to mind at this time. Maybe others will know? And of course there are many excellent books on blues and jazz that are very helpful.

The more ideas one gets the better since there is always more than one way to learn a given technique. But most of all, countless hours of listening to recordings and live gigs of the real pros of all styles of music (both old and new) to pick up their ideas.

Thanks again Frank and we will keep rockin’!

I couldn't have said that any better, picking up ideas by listening , playing along side others , books and countless other ways and THANK YOU John for all of your input through the years

 

[John Laughter]

Welcome Frank!

 

[John Laughter]

Nice “fan club” John has.

:mrgreen: Thanks! I can use all the help I can get :cheers:

 

[MNSaxMan]

That was awesome!! Very nice John!! I tell you what, I love playing my Bari but after hearing that I feel like busting out the old “Duke Special” Tenor and doing some Rock & Roll!!! Oh do you make that Tenor sing, dang that sounded good!

I am only a little ways through that huge PDF file you sent, talk about a loaded document, it is unreal. Can’t thank you enough for capturing all that for people like myself that did not grow up in when the sax was the king of cool (still is in my book though!).

I see your book is still available! I think I know what my next purchase will be

 

[John Laughter]

That was awesome!! Very nice John!! I tell you what, I love playing my Bari but after hearing that I feel like busting out the old “Duke Special” Tenor and doing some Rock & Roll!!! Oh do you make that Tenor sing, dang that sounded good!

I am only a little ways through that huge PDF file you sent, talk about a loaded document, it is unreal. Can’t thank you enough for capturing all that for people like myself that did not grow up in when the sax was the king of cool (still is in my book though!).

I see your book is still available! I think I know what my next purchase will be

Well MNSaxMan, you just made my week! Wow! Sure appreciate it. Just some old school Rock & Roll with a little help from the dancers. They always like getting into the show when we play :mrgreen:

Yes the PDF file is a little long with over 500 pages to date. Apart from enjoying the history and communicating with many of the players it was interesting to find out how many jazz and classical musicians played solos on Top 40 hits. Being versatile paid off for many of them over the years.

If you do purchase the book (thanks ) feel free to ask me any questions that you might have about the lessons and I will do my best to get an answer for you. And if I can't answer the question there are many SOTW members who can! A lot of top shelf players with a lot of knowledge on SOTW.

And thanks again to Neil for the surprise post! :cheers:

 

[Keith Ridenhour]

sounds good to me Got th at old style growl sax nailed K

 

[John Laughter]

sounds good to me Got th at old style growl sax nailed K

Thanks Keith!