Understanding saxophone solos in recorded popular music 1972-1995

  • Robert J. Woodward

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

Saxophone solos have appeared in a wide variety of popular music. Once a staple voice of 1950s rock 'n' roll, the saxophone had a resurgence in popular music between 1972 and 1995, a period when some bands had saxophonists as fulltime members and many session saxophonists recorded and toured with pop groups and celebrities. This period also coincided with well-known jazz performers such as Michael Brecker and David Sanborn working as session musicians and touring extensively with pop groups. Since 1995 the saxophone has been less prevalent in popular music, apart from occasional high profile appearances. My undergraduate training in saxophone performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in England revolved around jazz, the French classical canon and contemporary classical repertoire. However, after entering the workforce as a freelance performer it became apparent that most of my income came from playing in a popular music context, an area in which I possessed minimal training. Some of this study's interviewees described similar experiences being highly adept jazz or classical musicians discovering a need to become proficient with the pop language. Although there is some academic literature about the saxophone and many pedagogical sources on soloing, they largely focus on jazz performance practice. Few focus solely on popular music, even though pop solos reach larger audiences than many of the same elite performers' longer jazz improvisations. This study addresses this anomaly by appraising the process of creating saxophone solos for popular music between 1972 and 1995 with a particular emphasis on studio procedures and the approach of the saxophonist. It examines the collaborative roles of saxophonist and producer in the manufacture of a musical product which gives the listener the allusion of being improvised. The study adopts a mixed methods approach through the analysis of musical language, transcription of solos and interviews with eleven well-known saxophonists from Los Angeles, New York, the UK and Australia. These interviews focus on the saxophonists' perspectives and experiences in creating feature solos for popular music recordings. The combination of interview data and musical transcription aims to provide greater understanding of the musical processes and role of the session musician in the creation of popular music. Findings include little standardisation in the production process. Often it is a rushed affair and saxophonists lack control over how their creative input is used in the final product. Conversely, there are benefits to the small amount of preparation time saxophonists receive to record solos. A distinct correlation between the production process and musical language is also established. The study finds that sax solos in popular music contain a plethora of melodic and tonal clichés and associations and these are analysed at length. Such formulaic devices are used to provide a specific level of stereotypical associations when a saxophone is featured. The use of such musical devices is also compared to the solo's location in the form, thus identifying specific conventions to a solo's placement within a track. The greater scope of the study includes furthering our understanding of popular music in several ways. These include examining the experience of session musicians in the recording studio, jazz musicians operating in popular music, artificiality in popular music production and classifying what is melodically acceptable in popular music.
Date of Award2018
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • saxophone music
  • interpretation (phrasing
  • dynamics
  • etc.)
  • popular instrumental music
  • melodic analysis
  • saxophone solos

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