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Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner Ask Me Now

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Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner play ‘Ask Me Now’

One of the first songs I heard with Joe Henderson was ‘Song For My Father’ on the album with Horace Silver.  He plays the second solo on that song.  It starts out simple, builds, and has a good shape to it.

We had it at home and my teacher Todd Clickard also played it at lessons since we worked on that song.  Todd had taken lessons from Joe Henderson years ago in San Francisco and tells me stories aobut it sometimes.

Joe Henderson would take the train and never brougth his saxophone, but instead sat at the piano.  He was an accomplished piano player in addition to being a great saxophonist.  Joe Henderson taught Todd a solo that he played on the song ‘Relaxin at Camarillo’ which I only recently found at a CD store in Boston.  Not the same solo Todd learned though.

Miles Davis John Coltrane So What

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Miles Davis & John Coltrane play ‘So What’

Live in 1958, available on DVD’s “Miles Davis: The Cool Jazz Sound” and

“Jazz Masters: Vintage Collection”

Miles Davis CDs

Miles Davis & John Coltrane play ‘So What’ Live in 1958, available on DVD’s “Miles Davis: The Cool Jazz Sound” and “Jazz Masters: Vintage Collection”

Miles Davis CDs Miles Davis DVDs Miles Davis Sheet Music
Miles- Autobiography

Jimmy Cobb is on drums, Wynton Kelly on the Piano, and Paul Chambers is on bass.

Saxophone Books ♫♫♫

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Here are a few books that I have used in learning the sax

Jazz- Patterns For Improvisation By Oliver Nelson, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook – E-flat, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook – B-flat Basic Aebersold Play-Alongs- Volume 54 – Maiden Voyage,

The Aebersold books are great fun to play with and are useful in learning tunes. They range in style and difficulty across over one hundred books.

The Charlie Parker Omnibook gives you many melodies and the improvisational genius of Parker in a single book.

Even if you mostly play jazz or another style, being comfortable with classical music will add something to your playing- specifically technique, precision, and a different set of musical ideas you can draw upon. Just listen to Bill Evans to hear the classical influence.

Intermediate/Advanced Aebersolds- Volume 64 – Salsa Latin Jazz, Volume 16 – Turnarounds, Cycles & ii/V7s

If you play some classical music or even if you mostly play jazz, it can be beneficial to study from the classical perspective.

Rubank Method is a series that ranges from beginning to advanced. It includes scale exercises, fingering challenges, classical melodies, and other exercises.

Rubank Elementary Method Saxophone
Rubank Intermediate Method Saxophone
Rubank Advanced Method – Saxophone Vol.1
Rubank Advanced Method – Volume 2 (Saxophone)
You should definitely haveThe Jazz Theory Book.

As James Moody says, “The Jazz Theory Book should be in every musician’s library regardless of the level of their ability.” As author Mark Levine says himself,
“A great jazz solo consists of:
1% magic
99% stuff that is
Explainable
Analyzable
Categorizable
Doable”

You’re on your own for the magic bit, but his book will help you with the 99% part. And while The Jazz Theory Book is great, Mark Levine is a piano player and for saxophone specific issues the Art Of Saxophone Playing can help. It can be a bit dry though.

Thelonious Monk Epistrophy

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Thelonious Monk Quartet – Epistrophy (Paris, 1966)
Thelonious Monk CDs

;Thelonious Monk Sheet Music

Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it.
-Thelonious Monk

I always wanted to play the piano, and jazz appealed to me.
-Thelonious Monk

I learned how to read music all by myself.
-Thelonious Monk

I think all styles are built around piano developments.
-Thelonious Monk

I was about 11 or something like that when I started, and used to play with all the different side bands when I was a teenager.
-Thelonious Monk

If my own work had more importance than any others, it’s because the piano is the key instrument in music.
-Thelonious Monk

If someone wants to play music you do not have to get a ruler or whips to make them practice.
-Thelonious Monk

Seems musicians come to New York and they reach a certain maturity, because there’s an awful lot of good musicians in New York.
-Thelonious Monk

The piano lays the chord foundation and the rhythm foundation, too.
-Thelonious Monk

Well, I like music and I like plays and that is what opera is.
-Thelonious Monk

All musicians are potential band leaders.
-Thelonious Monk

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.
-Thelonious Monk

Be-bop wasn’t developed in any deliberate way.
-Thelonious Monk

Count Basie Corner Pocket

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Count Basie Big Band – Corner Pocket

Count Basie CDs

Count Basie Sheet Music

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel… and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life.
-Count Basie

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.’
-Count Basie

I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.
-Count Basie

I’m saying: to be continued, until we meet again. Meanwhile, keep on listening and tapping your feet.
-Count Basie

If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.
-Count Basie

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
-Count Basie

Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
-Count Basie