Instruments

Sax (Tenor)

The tenor saxophone was originally one of a family of fourteen saxophones of various sizes, created by the Belgian-French instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. (A saxophone is a reed instrument with a cone-shaped, keyed metal body.) Near the middle of the group, the tenor saxophone (both the current version in the key of B flat and an orchestral "melody" saxophone in C) was a popular orchestral and band instrument in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, as saxophones gained importance in jazz around 1930, it became part of many a jazz dance band. Yet the tenor saxophone's prominence as a solo instrument grew largely from the work of one specific performer, Coleman Hawkins, whose 1939 recording of "Body and Soul" was a key event in the evolution of jazz musical vocabulary. The unusual timbres of the tenor that Hawkins explored also played an important role in rhythm-and-blues and early rock and roll, with, for example, such artists as King Curtis lending a distinctive sound to recordings on the Atlantic label.

Artist Highlights

Artist Active Styles
Sonny Rollins 1940s - 2010s Bop, Hard Bop, Post-Bop, Band Music, Global Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Mainstream Jazz, Saxophone Jazz
King Curtis 1950s - 1970s R&B Instrumental, Southern Soul, Early R&B, Hard Bop, East Coast Blues, Soul Jazz, Soul
Joe Henderson 1950s - 1990s Hard Bop, Modal Music, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz, Bossa Nova, Brazilian Traditions, Fusion, Jazz Instrument, Mainstream Jazz, Saxophone Jazz, Soul Jazz
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis 1940s - 1980s Bop, Hard Bop, Soul Jazz, Swing, Global Jazz, Latin Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
John Coltrane 1940s - 1960s Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Hard Bop, Modal Music, Post-Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz, Film Score
Dexter Gordon 1940s - 1980s Bop, Hard Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Johnny Griffin 1940s - 2000s Hard Bop, Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz, Film Score, Post-Bop
John Gilmore 1950s - 1990s Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Bop, Post-Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Zoot Sims 1940s - 1980s Bop, Cool, Hard Bop, Jazz Instrument, Mainstream Jazz, Saxophone Jazz
Wayne Shorter 1950s - 2020s Fusion, Hard Bop, Modal Music, Post-Bop, Crossover Jazz, Global Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Progressive Jazz, Saxophone Jazz
Dewey Redman 1950s - 2000s Free Jazz, Modern Creative, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Lester Young 1930s - 1950s Mainstream Jazz, Swing, Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz, Cool
Sam Rivers 1950s - 2010s Avant-Garde Jazz, Experimental Big Band, Free Improvisation, Free Jazz, Post-Bop, Progressive Jazz
Archie Shepp 1960s - 2020s Film Score, Free Jazz, Hard Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz, Mainstream Jazz, Progressive Jazz, Standards, Poetry, Spoken Word
Albert Ayler 1950s - 1970s Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Stan Getz 1940s - 1990s Bossa Nova, Brazilian Traditions, West Coast Jazz, Cool, Hard Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz, Trumpet Jazz, Post-Bop
Bob Cooper 1940s - 1990s Cool, Hard Bop, West Coast Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Illinois Jacquet 1940s - 2000s Bop, Hard Bop, Jump Blues, Swing, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Coleman Hawkins 1920s - 1960s Bop, Early Jazz, Mainstream Jazz, Swing, Post-Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz, Big Band
Marchel Ivery 1960s - 1990s Post-Bop