Is the sax shunned by prog bands? |
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Mascodagama
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Edited by Mascodagama - June 11 2018 at 16:03 |
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Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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Squonk19
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Just been listening to Camel's Song Within a Song (A Live Record) - a lovely sax solo in that one!
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Universeal12
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Magma’s song ‘Kobaia’ has a sax solo on it. But a (as so described) ‘prog-light’ band may not want to break out that doozy.
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Mascodagama
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Now here is a little ditty that is crying out for a cover version:
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Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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The Dark Elf
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The entire A Passion Play albums is also filled with sax-playing.
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Dellinger
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Or else, you can just play any song you might want to play and add sax to it. Camel did it when they got Mel Collins in the band. King Crimson has done it too. First, with Starless, which was originally played live with violin, but for the album they did it without the violin, which was replaced by guitar, and sax added on different parts. And on the recent tours they have done with Mel Collins back in the band they have added sax (and/or flute) to songs that didn't originally have them, like on Red and Level 5.
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SteveG
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The beauty of not having sax run wild in prog is that it's not overplayed. There's actually more bands with sax than I imagined but still not enough to oversaturate the genre.
Edited by SteveG - June 12 2018 at 04:00 |
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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I can't believe no one has mentioned Happy the Man yet.
Also, the early prog bands Family, Audience and Gnidrolog. Van der Graaf Generator is the most obvious example but were already mentioned. As for more recent stuff I can't think of much. I think it's pretty absent from neo prog and for the most part symphonic prog as well. However, I do remember seeing Anna Holmgren playing some sax when I last saw Anglagard and there's some listed on their last studio album as well. These days the sax shows up from time to time it seems but admittedly most bands seem to forget about it. There's some in Steven Wilson's music though played by Theo Travis.
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Davesax1965
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Blodwyn Pig.
Actually, as a sax player, the reason for saxes being mainly absent from prog rock bands is that there are not many improvising sax players out there. Most saxophonists start off being classically taught, but they're not taught improvisation. Most stick to "reading the tadpoles" so few actually bother to learn improvisation. Improvisation takes years to master, as it involves listening to back catalogue music for .... ages. By the time you're ready to improvise in a certain genre, life has caught up with you and you have a wife, kids, mortgage and not much time to be in a band. It used to be different insofaras people devoted all their time to learning to play an instrument to a high standard, but there are lots of distractions now and people have simply got less time. There are also very few sax teachers out there and all charge a lot of money. It takes a long term to master sax, it's easy enough to learn the basics, but you'll learn bass or guitar fundamentals quicker than you will learn sax fundamentals. Instrument cost is also a factor. There are some cheap saxes coming out of China, but a professional sax, like a modern Yamaha or Yanigisawa is not a cheap investment. More so than most Gibsons, really. Another problem is that most bands nowadays have little experience of playing with fixed pitch instruments. Playing in E puts me in F# on tenor of C# on alto. Those are not easy keys to play in, saxes are basically designed to play in keys which have as few sharps or flats as possible. If you ever turn up at a jam session with an unamplified sax, it's not much fun, either, when the rest of the band play so loud that you are essentially inaudible. The old maxim used to be "the world needs more sax players". Still the case. |
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Davesax1965
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(Early) Roxy Music.
I used to do session work for bands, but whoopsy, with no money coming in for a lot of bands, they can't afford session players. I've done lots of freebies, but you have to draw the line. Also, with gigging bands, there aren't enough sax players to go around. Like drummers, you can pick and choose who you gig with, if gigging is yo funky thang. I'm 52, I don't want to play with young bands (and they don't want to play with me) - there are not all that many middle aged musicians around here, to be honest. Combine this with the number of sax players who like prog rock.... most like ska or soul and will naturally gravitate to those bands. Or jazz. Edited by Davesax1965 - June 12 2018 at 06:10 |
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Davesax1965
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And here's some links. Me on sax. I've got six, also play wind synth.
1933 Buescher Aristrocrat alto https://brotherhoodofthemachine.bandcamp.com/track/1-nocturnal-transmission https://brotherhoodofthemachine.bandcamp.com/track/3-ketamine-dream-machine 1957 Conn 16M "Director" tenor
https://brotherhoodofthemachine.bandcamp.com/track/meditation-of-the-blue-serpent-4 |
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SteveG
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Quinino
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Mike, give a listen to these Dutch guys from the mid-70's (light and very enjoyable, lots of soprano & tenor) Edited by Quinino - June 12 2018 at 07:16 |
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Tapfret
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Island is a perfect example. Keys, vocals, sax and drums only. The sax is integral but not dominant like most sax solo work. It's post-sax. Using sax for non-sax purposes. |
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Tapfret
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Prog light. Low-carb option I suppose. |
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The Dark Elf
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Two Traffic albums I consider prog, John Barleycorn Must Die and Low Spark of High Heeled Boys has some nice sax parts, courtesy of Chris Wood.
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer Joined: May 28 2005 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 10377 |
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the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble, featuring the sadly late Jon
Hiseman on drums, featured 2 sax players even, the late Charlie Mariano
and Barbara Thompson; both also played flute. in their prime the band
consisted of 10 musicians. beside the usual drums, bass, guitar and
keyboards (which were provided by Hiseman, Eberhard Weber, Volker
Kriegel and Wolfgang Dauner), there were Charlie Mariano and Barbara
Thompson on saxes and flute, with Mariano also playing nagaswaram, Ian
Carr on trumpet, Ack van Rooyen on trumpet and flugelhorn, Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and
Albert Mangelsdorff on trombone. the six-piece horn section made the
UJRE at times sound like a big band
Edited by BaldJean - June 19 2018 at 08:36 |
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progmatic
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Let's not forget Nova either. Magnificent use of sax. Also McDonald & Giles. Audience "House on Haunted Hill". And on and on.
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PROGMATIC
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terramystic
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Dream Theater - Another Day
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Frenetic Zetetic
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Gentle Giant has plenty of sax.
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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
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