Here goes -
Coltrane - "Transitions"I love the way he developes his solo on this long track. Its very experimental, or rather, the best term to describe it is trancendental coz only God knows where Coltrane is drawing his notes from! The way his solo approaches the climax is just utterly spellbinding, and harmonically dense. You could hear his lungs, and his very soul screeching through the brass, it feels to me as though he tried to push his very being through the music. Amazing. Amazing. His phrasing here is like a mantra. When i close my eyes listening to this, I imagine Coltrane summoning his powers from the same place Hendrix and Holdworth summon theirs. Beyond technique.
Coltrane - "Welcome"From the same "Transitions" album, "Welcome" is a sharp contrast to the title track. Unbelievably, the short ballad is reminiscent of a few notes from the "Happy Birthday" song, but Coltrane just transforms it into something else. The sheer power of good phrasing and emotion. Moving. Touching.
Charlie Parker - "Yardbird Suite"What can I say? Parker is THE MAN. I love the chords, the melody. The only thing scarier than hearing Parker play this is how Tal Farlow does it on his guitar. Masterful.
I'm guilty of being a Coltrane follower, heres one more-
Miles and Coltrane "On Green Dolphin Street"Coltranes solo here is just hair raising! After Davis' solo, Coltrane just takes off the runway, and the notes he plays "skims" over the changes, with a floaty quality! How i wish i could do that on guitar! you can't help but be astounded by the fluency of his phrases. They are dense, notewise, but still breath. I feel Coltrane steals his audiences breath to play his lines...
I'm gonna sound like a total doofus for mentioning this one, but isn't
George Michael's "Careless Whisper" a classic sax riff?!?! (C'mon guys, you jam this too!) I had fun jamming over the changes on this one with kakoy, but he took the tune for a spin.
Grover Washington Jr. "Winelight" AlbumWinner 'to! When i first tried to cop sax riffs on the guitar in high school, this album was my reference coz Grover's playing was so melodic. The first two tracks were so catchy, heartfelt, plus he was backed by a stellar cast of muso's:
Bill Withers: vocal on "Just the Two of Us"
Ralph MacDonald: congas, percussion, syndrums
Steve Gaad: drums
Marcus Miller: bass
Eric Gale: guitar
Paul Griffin: Fender Rhodes, clavinet
Richard Tee: Fender Rhodes
Bill Eaton, Ed Walsh: Oberheim synthesizer
Raymond Chew: clavinet
Robert Greenridge: steel drums
I gotta find myself another copy of that! thanx for rehasing my memory
Lastly, Stan Getz bossa nova stuff. I love bossa, it makes me hungry. My dad just has a huge collection of Gilberto, Jobim, and all the folks, so i can't choose any tune particularly on Getz coz it's all been homogenously grafted into my ears, mind, taste buds and appetite. (Blame it on my dad for playing bossa everytime he cooks lunch and dinner on sundays.)