Here is this year’s summer playlist, with the theme being saxophone songs. It spans a full ten decades, almost a hundred years of recorded music. It starts off pretty sparse in the 1930’s and 40’s and thins out again from the 1990s’ into the 21st century. It begins with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker, who virtually defined modern jazz on the sax. In the 50’s and into the 60’s it’s dominated by the great jazz players, mainly tenor but a few alto, soprano, and even bari. In the mid-sixties pop music start taking over, beginning with soul rapidly followed by rock, and alot of great horn section bands appear around this time. By the mid-seventies into the 80’s there’s lots of different styles and in rock, horn sections largely give way to a single sax player. By the 90’s rock and pop had largely moved into grunge and electronic styles, so there’s less of a role for the horn. Still, around the time we see a resurgence of a new generation of jazz that continues into the present day.
1930’s
Coleman Hawkins – Body and Soul
1940’s
Charlie Parker – Donna Lee
1950’s
Sidney Bechet – Petite Fleur
Ben Webster + Art Tatum – Have You Met Miss Jones?
Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane – Nutty
Sonny Rollins – St. Thomas
Paul Desmond – Take Five
Lester Young – There’ll Never Be Another You
The Champs – Tequila
Ornette Coleman – Lonely Woman
Charles Mingus – Better Git It in Your Soul
Miles Davis – Freddie Freeloader
1960’s
John Coltrane _ Giant Steps
Dexter Gordon – Cheese Cake
Paul Desmond + Gerry Mulligan – All the Things You Are
Stan Getz – The Girl From Ipanema
James Brown – I Got You (I Feel Good)
Eddie Harris – Freedom Jazz Dance
Wayne Shorter – Mah Jong
Sam And Dave – Hold On I’m Coming
Wilson Pickett – In the Midnight Hour
King Curtis – Memphis Soul Stew
The Beatles – Savoy Truffle
The Doors – Touch Me
Sly and the Family Stone – Want to Take You Higher
Joe Henderson – Black Narcissus
King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man
1970’s
Traffic – Glad
Blood Sweat & Tears – Smiling Phases
Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4
Vehicle – The Ides of March
Rolling Stones – Heartbreaker
Headhunters – Sly
Pink Floyd – Us and Them
Supertramp – Crime of the Century
AWB – Pick up the Pieces
The Brecker Brothers Band – Some Skunk Funk
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
David Bowie – Young Americans
Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years
Return to Forever – Nite Sprite
Billy Joel – Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Weather Report – Havona
Steely Dan – Deacon Blues
Foreigner – Long, Long Way from Home
Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
ZZ Top – She Loves My Automobile
1980’s
Grover Washington Jr. – Just the Two of Us
The Blues Brothers / Aretha Franklin – Think
Joco Pastorius – Soul Intro/The Chicken
Lounge Lizards – Harlem Nocturne
The Electric Mayhem – Can You Picture That?
The Police – Hungry For You
Alan Parsons Project – Old and Wise
Genesis – Paperlate
Madness – Our House
Joe Jackson – You Can’t Get What You Want (TYKWYW)
Wham! – Careless Whisper
Sade – Smooth Operator
Huey Lewis and the News – The Heart of Rock’n’Roll
Sting – Shadows in the Rain
INXS – What You Need
Tears for Fears – The Working Hour
Bill Bruford’s Earthworks – Thud
Michael Brecker – The Cost of Living
1990’s
Branford Marsalis – Mo’ Better Blues
They Might be Giants – She’s Actual Size
Morphine – Honey White
John Zorn – Batman
The Seatbelts – Tank
2000’s
Ravi Coltrane – 26-2
Pharoah Sanders – The Creator Has a Master Plan
Joshua Redman’s Elastic Band – The Crunge
2010’s
Joshua Redman / Brad Mehldau – Ornithology
Kamasi Washington – Street Fight Mas
Too Many Zoos – Car Alarm
2020’s
Sungazer – Threshold
David Murry – Cycles and Seasons
Honorable Mention – songs that didn’t make it because they’re not on Spotify, or they’re already on another playlist:
Raymond Scott – Powerhouse
Steve Lacy – Plays Monk
Tower of Power – What is Hip
Parliament Funkadelic – Give Up the Funk
The Who – The Real Me
Maceo Parker – Pass the Peas
Duran Duran – Rio
Huang Chung – Dance Hall Days
Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny – Song X
Fishbone – Bonin’ in the Boneyard
Material – Black Light