Great Sax

[uk_lefty]

Does anyone here have a sax player in their band?  I've got this idea... I'm forming an 80s covers group with a drummer and a guitarist I've played with previously in different bands.  I am allergic to keyboards and keyboard players, but I hear sax on a lot of the decent songs and some keyboard motifs would be great recreated by sax...

 

But I've never played with a sax player before. How do you find one? What are the pitfalls of having a sax player? Are they happy sitting out the bits where there's no sax? Is it possible to get just one or so horn sections only travel in groups?

 

Any advice, experiences to share, as well as horror stories, very much welcome! Thank you

[Steve Browning]

IME horn players are a mercurial bunch. I played in a band where one didn't arrive for a gig. When contacted, he brazenly stated a more lucrative gig had been offered to him the day before. 

 

They all tend to arrive 5 minutes before downbeat and leave 5 minutes after, offering no assistance with the PA into which the mic they proffered upon their arrival was plugged. 

 

I haven't played with a single player. I always thought the guy in George Thorogood's band looked really out of place. 

[Wombat]

I’ve occasionally played with a brass section and it’s way cool. But as mentioned above many seem to be ‘different to us’.

Ones I’ve played with ‘read’ so it has to go ‘exactly like that’. No ‘going round the chorus again’ (generally). And quite a lot of eye rolling and tutting with the way I play 😂.

[neepheid]

Our horn players are fully integrated into the band. When not playing, the bone player does BVs (and occasionally sings lead), and the sax player dances.

 

I feel like I need to point out that I'm talking about The Inevitable Teaspoons, which is an originals band.  We have no guitars, it's all keyboard driven, horn laden nonsense that we play so there isn't a lot of downtime for the horn players.  We've only had one bone player and two sax players (the original one quit on medical grounds).  I have a sneaky suspicion that the mercenary horn players alluded to above are the preserve of the covers band world?

Edited 1 hour ago by neepheid