[Onarhe]

I have been asked to play the sax part on Young Americans by David Bowie.
The gig is during Christmas.
Anyone have a transcription, or will I have to do it the hard way?

BTW, is there any effect/pedal involved here, or is it just growling?

 

[RootyTootoot]

This isn't meant to be rude but I think you are doing it the hard way by trying to track down a ready-made transcription on the internet. By the time you've listened to it a few times with sax in hand you could probably write down a sax part that's pretty close and you'd have gained a lot more and it's more fun.
IMO.

 

[Koen88]

http://www.ease.com.au/sax/BowieDavid_YoungAmericans.html

But it is allways better to transcribe yourself, it has learned me so much in quite a short time!

 

[Swaman]

That tenor sound was probably done in the studio, so even if you growl you won't get the same sound. Probably need some electronic assistance. Learn it 8 bars at a time. Sing it first, then you can reproduce it on your horn. It's not that complicated. Also you can make a chart showing the form so you know where to play. A single line chart with marks showing how many bars in each section & your entrances will help. Or, just play along with the recording & learn it a few notes at a time. Lots of repetition required to do that.

 

[AltoLemur]

It's an Alto part which sounds like the bottom and mid frequencies have been cut and a distortion pedal added to the sax microphone with the drive no more than half way. Hold the sax way back in the mix so you can blow the tune through hard.

The sax setup doesn't seem to matter as each video on youtube has a different player with different types of mpc etc.

If you're playing a small gig, the sound setup won't matter too much anyway as the live sound will mix in, so just go for it.

 

[drakesaxprof]

That is a classic alto part, played by David Sanborn. The YouTube video audio is terrible -- download it from iTunes, and you'll have a better shot at having something to emulate.