Is the sax shunned by prog bands?

Just incidentally, for those wanting to try sax but without massively deep pockets, google "Xaphoon". Or "pocket saxophone". 

There are several versions available, but basically, most are a bamboo tube with an (alto) sax mouthpiece attached. No keywork and pitched, generally, in C (rather than Bb or Eb, so you can play with other instruments without having to transpose.) These are pretty cheap, by the way. 

The fingering is somewhat different from a conventional sax, but given the simple construction, they don't sound bad and it's an easy starter instrument. Although you'd have to re-transition to sax if you bought one as a result of playing one of these. 

The world needs more sax players, basically. ;-) 

Or perhaps parts that were played with flute on some songs could be adapted to be played with sax, as Steve Hackett has done with "Firth of Fifth" on his recent interpretations of the song this decade.

moshkito wrote: Hi, Tangerine Dream, for a large period of their music, had Linda Spa doing saxophone, flutes and keyboards. In one sad interview, Jerome Froese said he thought it sounded too much like musak, and he didn't really care for it, which I felt was not a kind remark.  Probably one of the nicest to listen to, but difficult because he takes it to heck and back sometimes in the early jazz albums, listen to Jan Garbarek. In his experimental phase it got more interesting and worked nicely with some Hindu folks and such. And his mixes with Egberto Gismonti, defy the definition of "jazz" and the quality of music they put together was outstanding. MAGICO is a truly beautiful album as is FOLK SONGS, and the saxophone is super nice.

BaldJean wrote: ... "Dis" is my favorite album of Jan Garbarek from the experimental phase. very atmospheric

Saperlipopette! wrote: Mascodagama wrote: BaldJean wrote: moshkito wrote: Hi, Tangerine Dream, for a large period of their music, had Linda Spa doing saxophone, flutes and keyboards. In one sad interview, Jerome Froese said he thought it sounded too much like musak, and he didn't really care for it, which I felt was not a kind remark.  Probably one of the nicest to listen to, but difficult because he takes it to heck and back sometimes in the early jazz albums, listen to Jan Garbarek. In his experimental phase it got more interesting and worked nicely with some Hindu folks and such. And his mixes with Egberto Gismonti, defy the definition of "jazz" and the quality of music they put together was outstanding. MAGICO is a truly beautiful album as is FOLK SONGS, and the saxophone is super nice. "Dis" is my favorite album of Jan Garbarek from the experimental phase. very atmospheric Or for those that dig the avant/noise/skronk thing Afric Pepperbird is a great pick. Check out Blow Away Zone A desert Island disc for me. Pepperbird and its quieter "twin album" Sart are the Garbarek-albums for me really and not much more I'm afraid. But I do love his playing on Terje Rypdal's selftitled 1971-masterpiece and with Esoteric Circle. Ok I guess I can include Triptykon and Witchi-Tai-To as well but that's about it. From 74 and onwards Jan's approach to playing his instrument just rubs me the wrong way.

I saw him several times live at the end of the eighties and start of the nineties and they were all memorable gigs - then again with the likes of Eberhard Weber, Nana Vasconcelos and Jon Christensen in the band, they couldn't really fail to be. I agree the records got a lot less interesting, though.

Clarinet fingering is different to saxes, believe me. 

Oboe is about the closest you'll come to sax fingering. Or recorder, for those of you who didn't pay attention in UK music lessons. ;-)

Clarinet doubling happened during early jazz / big band days as, frankly, the more instruments a sax player played, the more hireable they were. 

Kazoo my ar$e. ;-)

I worked with an idiot once (I've worked with many) who decided to tell me "what a good sax solo there was in "Karma Chameleon". I pointed out to her (a) it was a terrible solo (b) in a dreadful song and (c) it was actually being played on a harmonica. ;-)

Current collection, thinned down somewhat. I used to have a 1936 (?) Sioma Bb baritone, a curved soprano, a 1922 Conn Chu Berry transitional alto and a Buffet Crampon S2 tenor. 

Actually, thinking about it, there is no such thing as a "standard sax fingering chart". Some early models (and I have one or two 1930's and earlier saxes) had all kinds of weird trill keys and alternate ways of playing Bb or Eb or doing, say, B to C trills. Add in altissimo fingering - playing really high notes - where some fingerings work for some players (and most don't) and it all gets a bit complicated. I also have a Yamaha WX7 wind synth from about 1987 and used to have a WX11, back in the mid 90's.

L-R King flute, 1960's, modern Japanese soprano, 1970's La Fleur (Weltklang alto), 1933 Buescher Aristocrat transitional alto, 1926 Elkhart (Buescher stencil) C melody, Conn 16M Director tenor (1956), Berg Larsen tenor (East German stencil, 1950's.) 

One of the most striking sax solos I've heard in prog rock actually doesn't contain any notes. 

Killer - off H to He by Van Der Graaf Generator. Dave Jackson (who I've exchanged a few mails with, really nice bloke) basically overblows a tenor sax whilst vaguely playing. This is more difficult than it sounds. ;-)

Almost everything that falls into the category jazz-rock fusion has sax so the answer to this one is clearly NO

That's a really nice looking collection.