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 3 hours ago by neepheid

[knirirr]

3 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

 

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

 

If you would like a horror story then there's one horn player I recall who emailed 15 minutes before we were due to start the set (he lived over 30 minutes' away)  to say that he had been feeling a little unwell all day and had now decided that he wasn't up to dong the gig. As we were heavily reliant on said horn player to pad things out with lots of soloing, this was a bit of a pain.

"They all tend to arrive 5 minutes before downbeat and leave 5 minutes after" seems right to me. I wonder if I'd do the same if I had an easy instrument to carry (probably not). 

 

Reading ability amongst the ones I know varies; most are better than me at reading and most (usually saxophonists) are good at improvisation. I recall seeing a discussion on a trombone forum where a trombonist asked why saxophonists were always so much better at improvising. One answer appeared to be than when it came to a practice session the saxophonists were ready to start noodling away after 5 minutes of adjusting their reed, and so got more practice at it than trombonists, who would have to spend 30 minutes warming up with long tones etc. to get the best out of their instrument (I don't know if this is true).

 

If they've played any jazz then they should be happy with taking a break when they're not soloing.

[chris_b]

The band I was in at school band had a trumpet, trombone and sax and my first pro band had 2 sax's, trumpet and a baritone. I've played many times with single sax players as well. If they're good players I love them. You usually find guitarists playing at normal volumes in bands with brass players. . . which is a bonus!

 

Sadly, these days, it's pretty uneconomical to run brass sections if you want to make money out of gigging. Apart from the money aspect, I've had nothing but positive experiences with brass players.