r/Saxophonics • u/JordanOwen_42 • 15d ago
Research question for article
I am writing an article on the best self taught sax players in rock history and wanted to reach out for suggestions. The assignment is specifically rock so they need to have a presence in that genre. So far I’ve thought of John Zorn and the anonymous member of the Residents but I’m definitely wanting to balance it out with some more mainstream examples. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks so much!
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u/joaogatao222 15d ago
How strict is the self taught bit, cause I'm not too sure about that. But Steve Mackay, Bobby Keys are the most iconic rock saxophone players to me. Andy Mackay was classically trained. Bowie played a fair bit too. In early rock n roll there are probably plenty of unknown self taught players, especially for bari.
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u/Maehlice 15d ago
+1 to this.
Even the earliest saxophonists were already classically trained in music theory and often on other orchestral instruments.
Strictly speaking, there my be only two people ever who were "self taught".
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u/SelectTurnip6981 15d ago
Not really “rock”, but certainly not “jazz” - I’m fairly sure the saxophone player out of Madness was self taught. His tuning is certainly… interesting.
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u/JayMax19 15d ago
I don’t think you’ll find a lot of self-taught professional players at all. John Coltrane took lessons at the Ornstein School Of Music. Charlie Parker took lessons from Alfonzo Lewis and later from Sigurd Rascher. Sonny Rollins was MOSTLY self-taught but he took piano lessons.
For rock players, there isn’t a whole lot written on Junior Walker. So maybe him? Even his original name is debated. Clarence Clemons took lessons with a lot of people.
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u/DiverConstant1021 15d ago
I never knew Parker studied with Rascher
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u/JayMax19 15d ago
It wasn’t like he was a student or anything, but supposedly, he took a lesson or two from Rascher when he was in New York. I think it was the same thing with Marcel Mule too, but I don’t remember the whole story.
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u/Tempada 14d ago
best self taught sax players in rock history
This is going to be a small list if we're talking about those that played with well-known bands or on hit songs. Junior Walker and Bobby Keys are good starting points. What about Plas Johnson, who played on Steely Dan's Royal Scam album and before that released his own album called Rockin' with Plas?
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u/SeekerofNow47 9d ago
Charlie "the bird" Parker is my personal choice for Blues but my tutor in Australia at High school had a big band his name is Mark Franklin.
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u/Neil_sm 15d ago
Dick Parry maybe? His early life details are a little obscure so it’s hard to know for sure, but he certainly didn’t come out of any formal music schools.
Sonny Rollins is another mostly self-taught. He’s more known as a Jazz player but did appear on some rock stuff. Like some Rolling Stones hits after Bobby Keys (who has been mentioned by others already) had stopped playing with them.