Best Sax Jazz

Seandtaylor...
By "modern jazz," do you mean anything "since the 60s?" If so, that would toss out a good bit of John Coltrane, a good bit of Sonny Stitt....

Last time I was in the Village, I went to Small's (you NYC inhabitants will know the place). The young kids playing jazz there on some nights are just incredible. They earn nothing (or next to nothing), but are playing for the love of it. And it is incredibly good music, deeply heartfelt, and as far as I can tell, respectful of the long history of jazz.

After a couple of shows one evening at Small's, I walked over to the Blue Note Cafe....now, that's "corporate" jazz, for lack of a better term, and was all about technique.

CP .... I didn't have a particular date in mind, but probably anything of the late 70s onward, though to me the 50s and 60s was the heyday. As I said I'm not well versed in jazz, but then again nothing I've heard on borrowed CDs or FM has made me want to explore any further .. it just sounds like a blur of notes ... fast for the sake of showing off.

Sonny Rollins, Art Pepper, Stan Getz ..... there are so many great sax players. Each for their own particular style and or skills. I love them all. However, I always find myself returning to Ben Webster. Particularily 'At the Renissance'. This loose, relaxed extremely open recording remains a staple on my playlist. Ben's 'Soulville' is also quite fantasic. A great late night groove is gauranteed.

Then there's also Don Byas. Shame he died so young.

A couple of younger sax players:

- Chris Potter: with his own groups or with the Dave Holland Quintet, I really dig this guy, he has a very musical style and mixes it up a bit with alto, soprano and tenor, as well as flute and bass clarinet, as well as exploring different stylings in the jazz idiom;
- Christine Jensen: a fine young alto player from Canada, has a couple of albums on the Montreal-based Effendi label (www.effendi.com), my brother has played bass on both so I'm biased, and the music is occasionally challenging, but quite satisfying overall;

and another who's been around for a while:

- Dave Tuner: Canadian alto player, recordings on Justin Time label, straight ahead jazz, with some latin influence in recent years.