Jazz Saxophone

Lester Young and John Coltrane came from the South, Charlie Parker and Wardell Gray from the Midwest, Art Pepper and Paul Desmond from California, Sonny Rollins from New York. During the '50s, they were all changing the face of jazz and defining the manifold directions in which the sax could take music.

Now that you've had a taste of the giants and legends, it's time to explore the diverse music of their worthy peers and successors. Listen with care, and you can hear faint echoes of Coltrane in Michael Brecker, and the martini-smooth sound popularized by Paul Desmond in Bud Shank's playing.

Now it's time to dig the groove a little deeper. Go out of the mainstream a bit and hear the experimental sounds of Albert Ayler and Anthony Braxton, or stay cool with the more melodic Joshua Redman or David Sanborn. The musical horizons are unlimited, and they're expanding every day.

Prez. Rabbit. Bird. Lockjaw. Cannonball. Trane. Jeep. Fathead. Lucky. Sonny. Pharoah. You don't necessarily have to have a nickname to be a great sax player, but it sure doesn't hurt. From honkers to crooners, in-the-pocket to out-on-the-edge, the practitioners of Adolphe Sax's creation abound in sounds. Believe it or not, the sax was created in the 1840s, but it was nearly a century later that it eclipsed the trumpet as jazz's premier instrument.