World of Pageantry

Your opinions?

First, check out Marcel Mule, San Francisoco Saxophone Quartet (the Bari player was accually my teacher for awhile) or look up pioneers of classical sax

After your done, post a reply on your opinion.

I'm one of the few people that sax is a classical instrument and not jazz

Sax is great for solo work and small ensembles, but when composing I hate writing for it because (to me) its sound blends very poorly with the standard orchestral winds. It has too brassy of a sound to blend well with other woodwinds, and too reedy of a sound to blend well with brass (less of a problem the louder the passage).

BUT, that's not to say it's without orchestral application. Shostakovich used saxophones to great effect in may of his ballet suites and film scores (most famously the Waltz #2 to "Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra").

Of course sax is for jazz. As is trumpet, horn, trombone, clarinet...

Jazz is an idiom for musical expression, it should be played by musicians.

BTW, instruments aren't defined by genre, genres are defined by musicians and composers. Don't get categorized by "the man". lol!

I have a recording from 1940 that is purely woodwind jazz .. sax, flute and clarinet. It is the only reason I picked the clarinet as my primary instrument. My dad would turn in his grave to hear that sax isn't for jazz since that's all he played on his from 1945 to 1953.

For me, this statement is just like saying "Guitar is for classical music only, not for gypsy flamenco music, rock, jazz, blues, none of that. Andrés Segovia said so." It just sounds so inconceivably ignorant that I can't really think of a way to express my feelings without using expletives.