Top 10 Most Influential Jazz Saxophonists

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5. Lester Young

With his tenor saxophone tilted sideways in his mouth, Lester Young was the model for cool saxophonists. His s****ed playing expanded the vocabulary of jazz. Most notably playing with Count Basie’s orchestra, he used linear phrases that gave birth to highly developed melodic thoughts. With a smooth, light and airy tone, Young was a master of musical understatement. His fellow artists, including Count Basie, were very impressed by his playing. In addition to Count Basie, he also accompanies Billie Holiday; but he is ultimately most remembered for his work with Count Basie where he helped define its signature sound. With a soft, lyrical style, Young was not only one of the most important swing era musicians, he helped define the sound of cool jazz several decades before its birth.

Suggested Listening

Lester Leaps In

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4. Eric Dolphy

Eric Dolphy was one of the most diverse jazz musicians who ever lived. Not only a groundbreaking alto saxophone player, he was also one of the first bass clarinet and flute soloists. But his work on the saxophone was what made him a legend. Along with musicians like Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, and Ornette Coleman, he pushed the genre of jazz into new stratospheres in the 60s with the emergence of free and avant-garde jazz. His personal sound ran the gauntlet from twelve tone scales, tonal bebop, and lifelike human and animal sound effects. Also a competent bandleader and composer, his work would inspire the likes of Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Han****, and Frank Zappa. Never touching drugs or alcohol, it was said that they only thing he was addicted to was practicing. Such is a fitting tribute to one of jazz’s bravest pioneers.

Suggested Listening

Tenderly, What Love, Far Cry, Out to Lunch (Album)

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3. Coleman Hawkins

While some would call him “Hawk,” one term that everybody could agree on calling Coleman Hawkins was “genius.” If Sidney Bechet made the saxophone a prominent voice in jazz, Hawkins will forever be remembered for making it the dominant one. Other saxophonists had come first, but he was the first one to truly catch the public’s eye and give the trumpet a run for its money as jazz’s primary instrument. The definitive swing tenor saxophonist, Hawkins had one of the most recognizable voices in jazz with his full tone, flowing lines that never seemed to end, and heavy vibrato. He was an insanely talented soloist whose solo on Body and Soul, which focused on outlining the accompanying chord progression instead of expanding on the melodic line, rewrote the rules of how to play jazz. While he is known predominately for his work in the swing genre, he also had a hand in the development of bebop, forming a combo on Manhattan’s 52^nd Street with Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Miles Davis, and Max Roach. As a pioneer of both swing and bebop, Hawkins had an impact on jazz that precious few others could claim.

Suggested Listening

Body and Soul, Picasso

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2. John Coltrane

One of the most prolific jazz artists in history, John Coltrane made some of the biggest contributions to the development of jazz. One of the elite players of bebop, hard bop, and free jazz, he was instrumental in the development of the use of different musical modes. A frequent collaborator with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, he continuously pushed the envelope of what was acceptable in jazz. One of his trademarks were lightning fast runs with hundreds of notes a minute, later known as “sheets of sound.” The most famous example would be his legendary Giant Steps, a song which to this day remains a rite of passage for young saxophonists. He pioneered the use of multi-tonic changes in chord progressions (they would later be referred to as Coltrane changes) where substitute chords are used over common jazz chord progressions. A s****ed composer, he wrote many songs which are still considered to this day to be jazz standards. In honor of his contributions, he received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2007 for “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.” Without Coltrane, jazz, and music as we know it, would be completely different.

Suggested Listening

Giant Steps, Acknowledgment (From a Love Supreme), In a Sentimental Mood,

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1. Charlie Parker

There was before Charlie Parker, and there was after Charlie Parker. That is how integral Charlie (Bird) Parker was to the development of jazz. It is no exaggeration to say that when he first hit the jazz scene he revolutionized everything. It is impossible to list all of his accomplishments and influences in such a small space, but I’ll try. He was one of the founders of bebop, introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas that introduced things like 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths of chords into jazz, utilized new chord substitutions and variants, and even helped pioneer the inclusion of classical and Latin influences into jazz. He had devastatingly diverse tone which could range from fast, furious and heavy to clean and soft. To say that he was influential is an understatement. When he came out, everybody wanted to play like him. Untold masses of saxophonists to this day treat his solo transcriptions as a musical bible. But he influenced more than just jazz music. He pioneered the jazz lifestyle and image which saw jazz players as sophisticated intellectuals of uncompromising artistic integrity. One of the greatest musicians who ever lived, his influence is even more staggering when you consider that he died at 34 years old, meaning that he shook the world of jazz to its foundation in a ridiculously short amount of time. There has never been another jazz musician who changed the game of jazz as much as Charlie Parker, and we are forever in his debt for it.

Suggested Listening

Ko-Ko, S****ple from the Apple, Embraceable You, Ornithology