Category Archives: Advent Calendar

Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #8 – Johnny Hodges

When Charlie Parker thinks you’re one of the greatest Alto players ever, you were John Coltrane’s hero & the greatest composer in Jazz loved your tone, you know you’re a pretty good player.

Day 8 of our Advent Calendar features Alto Saxophonist Johnny Hodges.  Hodges, or ‘Rabbit’ was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1907, but he grew up in Boston.  His first instruments were the piano and drums, switching to the Soprano Saxophone in his teens and after hearing Sidney Bechet aged 14, knew he wanted to make music is full time career.

He joined Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in 1928 & Ellington’s practice of writing tunes specifically for members of his orchestra resulted in the Hodges specialties, “Confab with Rab”, “Jeep’s Blues”, “Sultry Sunset”, and “Hodge Podge”. Other songs recorded by the Ellington Orchestra which prominently feature Hodges’ smooth alto saxophone sound are “Magenta Haze”, “Prelude to a Kiss“, “Haupe” (from Anatomy of a Murder) – note also the “seductive” and hip-swaying “Flirtibird”, featuring the “irresistibly salacious tremor” by Hodges, “The Star-Crossed Lovers” from Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder suite, “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)“, “Blood Count” and “Passion Flower”.

Enjoy…

Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #7 – Dave Liebman

Dave Liebman is the first of our Advent Saxophonists who is still alive, and what an impact he’s had.

Liebman was born in New York in 1946 and grew up in the Big Apple, starting the piano aged nine and getting his first saxophone aged twelve.  It was in New York where he was fortunate to hear John Coltrane live at Birdland when he was just seventeen! Dave Liebman then went onto to play with Coltrane’s former drummer Elvin Jones and Miles Davis in the 1970s.

Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #6 – Stan Getz

‘Stan Getz is a great bunch of guys’*

Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski in 1927 and became one of the most important post-war tenor saxophonists.  His music became widely known and his sound became ‘the sound’ of the saxophone for many people after his successful collaboration with Charles Byrd and later Anton Carlos Jobim during the Bossa Nova craze of the 1960’s.

But Getz was no commercial sell-out.  He had some serious jazz chops and worked with the likes of Oscar Peterson, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie.

Enjoy the video, the playlists and share some Getz with someone today!


*attributed to Zoot Simms

Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #5 – Lester Young

Today is ‘President’s Day’ – that is we honour Lester Young.

Lester Young was nicknamed ‘Prez’ by Billie Holiday, who he nicknamed, ‘Lady Day.’ Alongside saxophonist #3, (Coleman Hawkins) Lester Young was the most significant Tenor Saxophonist of the Pre-War era.

Born in Woodville, Mississippi and raised in New Orleans, Young played drums until he noticed that, ‘all the pretty girls had left by the time I’d packed away my kit,’ so, he switched to saxophone! His relaxed, cool sound and ‘hip’ slang set him apart from his peers.  He could play for hours and often did in many of the all night jam sessions in Kansas City.

At the time his sound was considered ‘wrong’ but it was his sound that influenced Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Stan Getz and thousands of other saxophonists who came after them.


Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #4 – Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy was born in New York in 1934.  He is not the most well known of our saxophonists in this Advent Series, but many sax players of today hold him in very high regard.

Lacy first started out playing ‘Trad.’ Jazz but quickly moved onto the Avant Garde scene during the 1960s.  A short spell with Monk’s band in 1960 led to a lifetime’s association with Monk’s music and Lacy featured a Monk composition on nearly all of his subsequent albums.

Branford Marsalis cites Lacy as a big influence on his own soprano playing, and he’s possibly less well known as he lived in Paris from 1970 until two years before he died of Cancer in 2004.


Dan’s Advent Saxophone Calendar #3 – Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1904 and rose to be one of the greatest Tenor Saxophonists.

It’s easier to list those who weren’t influenced by ‘Hawk’ on the Tenor than those that studied and copied Hawkins.  Sonny Rollins was a big fan of Hawkins, and even wrote this ‘fan mail’ to him back in the 1950’s. 

We spent a good deal of time in 2017 transcribing, (to varying degrees of success,) Hawk’s solo over All the Things You Are.  Here’s my Vlog episode and the playlists below. Please do share this material with people in your own networks.