Claire DALY is one of the few women to play the baritone. Howard JOHNSON also known on the tuba, plays equally superbly the baritone sax and James CARTER plays with ease all types of saxophones. Jim HARTOG plays in the “29th Street Saxophone Quartet” and is a model of stability. Roger ROSENBERG served by a very good technique, has played, among others, with the “Bob Mintzer Big Band” and the “Manhattan Jazz Orchestra”. A little less known but equally captivating, Glenn Wilson plays the baritone with the lightness and velocity of a tenor and Denis DIBLASIO seems increasingly to be an important player, such as Dale FIELDER and Kerry STRAYER. Adams, Gary SMULYAN is a musician to follow closely. In the same spheres, Nick BRIGNOLA, who died in 2002, had an impressive ease and velocity. In the new generation Ronnie CUBER is most interesting, served by a remarkable technique, a wealth of ideas and great musicality. Sahib SHIHAB also known on the alto and the flute, has on the baritone an incisive sound and proves himself, like Jerome RICHARDSON, an improviser of great interest. Pat PATRICK and Charles DAVIS have often played together at Sun Ra and are both admirable musicians, at ease in all registers. A perfect mastery of the instrument allowed him to push the limits and some of his solos are a true catalog of the different sounds possible. In a completely different style, Hamiet BLUIETT was once considered as “the new messiah of the baritone saxophone”. Better known on the tenor, Bill Perkins plays the baritone softly and with lyricism. Jimmy GIUFFRE, before focusing on the clarinet, was an excellent baritone and Jack NIMITZ was a very good soloist who has played with “Supersax”. In a very intellectual style, Gil MELLE is an exciting and innovative musician. At the same period, Boots MUSSULI and Virgil GONSALVES were musicians less well-known but very interesting. Bob GORDON unfortunately gone too soon (he died in 1955 at age 27), could have become the most important of its generation: his sharp and clear sound resulted, with apparent ease, a logical music, seductive and irresistibly swinging. A prolific composer and subtle arranger, he was a musician playing flexibly and soft but also more than anyone, he contributed to empower the baritone sax and make it recognized as a soloist voice in its own right. People started to talk about him in the ’50s, Gerry MULLIGAN remains in the collective memory the great baritone of the jazz history, in any case the most popular. The most impressive of all is probably Pepper Adams, whose magnificent sound, thick and sharp, worked wonderfully in all contexts, from Coltrane to Mingus through Monk and L. Cecil PAYNE began his career around 1945, with a warm sound and a great ease, he plays with C. Leo PARKER also plays in a bop style but grounded in the blues, he possessed a big sound and a powerful playing. In the early ’40s, Serge CHALOFF becomes a major soloist and the first Be-bop baritone with highly innovative ideas, a unique sound and a great emotional discharge. And Ernie CACERAS shows great mastery of the instrument with, for example, S. At about the same time and in his legacy, Jack WASHINGTON plays the baritone sax for the C. Since 1927, he began some exploratory work on this instrument and succeeds with elegance and refinement to give the baritone its noble pedigree. Rightly regarded as the father of all baritones, he aroused a great number of vocations. Much less often in the limelight as his little brothers, the tenor, alto and soprano saxes, it does have talentuous ambassadors talent to make its voice heard. Used a few times in contemporary classical music, in Rock or Pop, it is especially in jazz that this wonderful instrument feels most comfortable. Its high price, its bulky size and a “column of air” difficult to control likely harm its popularity. Although it has exceptional qualities (voluptuous register, warm sound, deep and expressive, rare dynamic and harmonic possibilities, speed and easy handling for an instrument with low tessitura, …), the baritone sax remains relatively unknown and unused.
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