Saxophone History Podcast Episodes 10-12

Posted by Andrew D Meyer on November 30, 2024 in Saxophone, Saxophone History Podcast, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I’m overdue for posting the sources for these articles so apologies if you’ve been looking for them. I did actually receive one text asking for a source on a particular fact, which both kicked me into action and made me feel so pleased that not only are people listening, but they are engaging with the material in a really thoughtful way. This history matters so much to me and it’s really cool to connect with other saxophonists who feel the same way. I think that by seeing ourselves as part of this grand tradition and evolution of saxophone playing we can’t help but bring integrity, sensitivity, and a deep sense of who we are in the arc of history to our playing. All of us, no matter what level we’re at or what gigs we’re on, are part of this wonderful history. If you think about it, most of us are only like two or three degrees away (if you follow Kevin Bacon rules) from some of the early masters, and their sensibilities definitely will have filtered through. [example: Andrew D. Meyer — studied with — James Umble — studied with — Jean-Marie Londeix — studied with — Marcel Mule.] I say that not to brag or anything like that but to give a sense of why our repertoire and our culture feel so vital to me.

Anyway, you came here for sources for the episodes. Here’s some thoughts about what’s in the episodes and where you can look for more information. As I say with each of these sources, I highly recommend reading them as there is so much detail and richness on these players that simply can’t make it into the episodes.

Episodes 10 and 11 are on Lester Young. Obviously Young was a hugely influential early tenor player and great swathes of jazz players on all horns would site his playing as foundational. Hopefully these episodes will shed a bit of light on who he was as a person by examining his shyness and early experiences with racism, his relationship with Billie Holiday, and his alcoholism., amongst other things. Also, Lester Young’s story was so closely tied to the Basie band that the episodes go into a good bit of detail about the societal factors that led to the development of the Kansas City sound and the territory bands, which make up a really fascinating part of American musical history. I’ve written much more on that subject here, if you’re interested.

Dave Gelly’s Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young was the major source for these episodes. As I mentioned earlier, there is so much more in this book and I highly recommend reading it. Dave Gelly’s access and ability to set things in context, as well as his very readable prose make his writing so engrossing. Another thing that Gelly does well, which I’ve consciously chosen not to do in the podcast is describe Young’s recorded playing in great detail. It’s quite fun to listen to his sides after reading Gelly’s descriptions of what you’ll hear. It really is a pleasure to read and if you’re interested you can find it here.

Here’s that short film I recommended called Jammin’ The Blues from 1944 that features Young prominently. It’s a really polished look at his playing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWDxsudvCX4

The only other thing I recommended was the opera based on Young’s life that I still haven’t seen. It’s called Prez: A Jazz Opera by Bernard Cash and Alan Plater and it was actually staged and produced by BBC 2 in 1985. If you find a link, please send it my way, I’d love to watch it.

Episode 12 is on Sigurd Raschèr. One of the things that I want to do with this podcast is look at players from all different styles and Raschèr is an interesting one because he is very much a contemporary of Johnny Hodges and Lester Young, though he played entirely different music. If you’re a jazz player and thinking you might give this one a swerve, I’d recommend you give it a chance as Raschèr was so important to so many players of all styles, particularly through his development of the altissimo register.

A great source, which I relied on heavily for this episode is Eleanor Scales’ masters thesis titled, The Influence of Sigurd Rascher on the Development of Saxophone Repertoire, which is available from the University of Huddersfield online, just click the link. Eleanor and I have never met, though we have a mutual friend in Jen Ashley, who I’ve been starting a quartet with recently in Huddersfield. This is just a funny coincidence. (Hi Jen!)

The best source on Raschèr is The Raschèr Reader, but unless you have access to a university library or are willing to shell out a pretty hefty sum you’ll probably struggle to find it. Dr. Wildy Zumwalt is writing a book on Raschèr so we can all look forward to that when it comes out.

I recommended that great clip of Raschèr playing the Larson Concerto on Dutch TV in the 60’s. You can check it out here. I would also recommend checking out that really wacky Buescher ad that featured Raschèr both playing and doing a bit of teaching. It’s a super awkward video but you can get a nice feel for who he was in it. Check it out here.

Thanks for listening and please do get in touch if you have any comments, questions, gripes, or whatever. It’s been really nice to connect with some listeners and get their feedback. I’m currently working on some episodes on Sonny Rollins so watch out for those when they drop!