Here's a guy who falls through the cracks: Hal Singer. I did some research on Jack Kerouac's novel ON THE ROAD and discovered that those great scenes where Dean Moriarty says "Blow! Blow!" weren't about bebop at all--and OTR is often called a bop novel--but about the tradition of honking R&B sax. Hal Singer was one of the masters of that tradition. You've heard of Big Jay McNeeley, but there was a whole school of bam!blam! sax honking.
The first half of this video features a much older Singer playing "Sister Sadie," I believe. Good stuff:
The second video is Singer's honking sax instrumental called "Hot Rod" that I've been working on lately. THIS is the s--t that Dean Moriarty was inspired by:
I'm working on a version of this for amped harp and foot drums and it's coming along nicely. It was fun to figure out the chord progression. Hint: the structure is classic American song structure: verse verse bridge verse. That wasn't obvious to me at first.
One of the way that modernizers like me work is we go back into the tradition and rediscover veins of it that haven't really been mined out. In this case, harp players have basically ignored the honking R&B tradition--with one exception, now that I think about it: on one of the J. Geils albums, Magic Dick leads into a song called "Funky Judge" with an uptempo blowdown, solo amped harp with no changes. Incredible harp work. So MD was there. Rob Piazza has maybe been there; he does a great version of "Rockin' Robin" that owes something to the way a sax would honk it.
Honk on, guys.
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2010 2:53 PM
The Magic Dick blowdown is actually called "Stoop Down # 39." Find the preview on iTunes. It's amazing stuff--and very much a creative embrace of this honking sax tradition that I'm talking about.
Here's my first attempt to translate "Hot Rod" into my own thing. I mean truly a first attempt: the first time I sat down to see if I could lay down a beat that fast and play at the same time. I'm still figuring out where the pieces all fit. But I thought you guys might be interested in how I work when I'm in the woodshed.
I've met Hal Singer in Paris in the early 90s. He was just a great guy, generous and well-meaning, and a towering figure. His french wife was mad about the fact that he didn't get the merit he deserved. She was right.
i just finished listening to your hal singer links. gotta be truthful- i think yours is better. maybe cause you are doing it all. or maybe cause it's a harp. i may be harp prejudice.
LW most certainly listening, learning and adapting this stuff. I`m certainly a fan of Hal Singer and all of those bar honkers like him, Big Jay and Red Prysock and the sound is just brash ass macho and certainly ain`t whimpy. "Hot Rod" and "Cornbread" are two of my favorite tunes of his. That`s his sax solo on Wynonie Harris` cover of the Roy Brown jump blues classic "Good Rocking Tonight." ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
When I think about the "jazz sax sound", I think of Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, etc. When I think of R&R or R&B sax, this is what I have in my head. Power and energy. Cool take on the harp, btw. :)
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2010 8:01 PM
