Famous Saxophonists

The saxophone has become a very popular instrument over the last few hundred years especially in jazz music. Here’s a run down of some of the most famous saxophonists.

Charlie Parker

Charlie ‘The Bird’ Parker was, and still is, perhaps the most saxophonist ever. He was known for his extreme improvisational skills and the speed at which he could think up and play out a tune. Born in August 1920, he would be ninety years old if he was still alive today. He was one of the first Bebop saxophonists and helped to develop the style over the years that it was popular. He worked a lot with Dizzy Gillespie and they were known as the founders of Bop. Charlie Parker’s most well known performance piece and one that he wrote himself is the Yard Bird Suite. This famous piece also gave him his other nickname of ‘Yard Bird’

John Coltrane

As one of the great jazz giants of the 1960s and 70s John Coltrane had a massive amount of influence on the growth of jazz during that time. He was as big an influential figure and Charlie Parker was in the 40s and 50s. John Coltrane favoured the tenor saxophone and created a very dark tone. People who heard him play said that he tone and definition was like none other heard in jazz, he was a true original. One of his trademarks  was the way he could ‘spilt’ notes in the upper register. The piece he is most famous for is ‘Giant Steps’ which is very difficult when it comes down to technicalities. John Coltrane was also a popular jazz composer and although he stopped performing in the years before he died of liver cancer in New York.

Lester Prez Young

Lester Prez Young was one of the best saxophonists in the swing era. He created a light and ‘airy’ sound. His improvisation was very lyrical and his tone has been described as ‘velvety’. Lester Prez Young was a huge influence on Charlie Parker and was a big name in the early days of Bebop.

Dizzy Gillespie

 John Birks Gillespie, known as ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, was not a saxophonsist but was still very important to the development of the saxophone within jazz music. Gillespie was a trumpeter and was pivitol to the Bebop movement in which saxophone players were given more freedom to play around and take more solos.