A spectrum of saxophones - musical contribution of the World Saxophone Quartet

American Visions, August-Sept, 1993 by Paul Baker

The one reissue in this review takes us back to the late 1950s, when Stanley Turrentine's star was rising. He had previously replaced John Coltrane in bandleader Earl Bostic's group and was playing with Max Roach. Turrentine recorded Stan the Man Turrentine (Bainbridge, 1980) in 1959 or 1960, and although it lasts only 34 minutes, it's a solid mainstream blowing session. Every musician here was a master: pianist Sonny Clark, who died only three years after this recording was made, bassist George Duvivier, who died in 1985, and drummer Max Roach, who is still going strong.

Turrentine's tenor is light, often in alto range. The liner notes identify his main influences as Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. Really? Don Byas, maybe.

Although the recording is more than 30 years old, the fidelity is quite good, with the full, bright, open stereo sound that recording studios achieved once upon a time. And it's a pleasure to hear Turrentine trading solos with Roach.

From the Boots Randolph school of brassy, honkin', in-your-face saxophone, Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters offer a variety of blues and funk. over the decades, the Gaines tenor sax style, with its raspy tone and screeches and howls, has proven its ability to excite audiences. As this good show band plays its party-down music, Gaines struts around in a pink cape.

Typical of Gaines' CD Horn of Plenty (Black Top, 1992) is "Upsetter" a kissing cousin of the bump-and-grind standard "Night Train." But Gaines also edges over into country music in the ballad "Stomp House Blues" and into 1950s Chuck Berry rock on "Alligator Rock."

Because trombonist Paul Roberts handles many of the vocals, Horn of Plenty seems as much Roberts' album as it is Gaines'. The songs include such lines as "Put your hands on your hips/And let your backbone slip," and "Say you'll change your mind/Stop my poor heart from cryin'." Down-home stuff.

Of a more urban flavor is Najee's Just an Illusion (EMI/Orpheus, 1992), offering pleasant, inconsequential music that makes no demands on the listener. Najee plays smooth, seamless background music suitable for social occasions or for doing household chores--a Kenny G-style aural wallpaper.

Although Najee improvises and plays his instruments (tenor and soprano saxophones and flute) well, his music lacks two elements crucial to jazz: spontaneous interplay among the musicians and emotional and intellectual depth. Little spontaneity is possible--Najee is only a small part of a heavily produced wall of sound, including vocal groups, electronic drums and bass, and synthesizers. But this CD will doubtless sell well, because that's what it was designed to do.

I'll say it again: There are as many ways of playing the saxophone as there are saxophonists, and there is something for every taste.

Paul Baker, a freelance journalist in Madison, Wis., writes for Coda Magazine, the Arts Midwest Jazzlet Jazz South, and Library Journal.