• Media Softcover with CD 80 Pages

• Book/CD Pack by Dennis Taylor

• Author: Dennis Taylor

This book/CD pack is solely devoted to providing you with a complete overview of the techniques and styles popularized by the greatest blues saxophonists of all time. All the best are here: from the rough-hewn Chicago Blues of Eddie Shaw and A.C. Reed, to the organ combo soul/jazz of Stanley Turrentine and Willis "Gator" Jackson. Includes lessons, music, historical analysis, rare photos and more - everything you need to master the blues saxophone! The accompanying CD - in Bb (tenor) pitch - includes 18 full-band tracks.

The book starts with straight-ahead Chicago blues players, and advances through blues rooted jazz to modern jazz masters. Each successive player is stylistically more progressive and complicated.

Each master is given a short biography, then his playing is put into musical context. Carefully selected photographs bring the words to life. Then a typical solo is explained and transcribed for readers to play themselves. Taylor puts the solo into context, with an incisive description of the techniques used. On the enclosed CD, Taylor demonstrates the transcribed solo. Cleverly, the saxophone and rest of the band are on separate channels, so that the student can mute Taylor's saxophone and play along with the band.

Blues Saxophone is the work of a professional musician and scholar who brings decades of research and passion to this project. His commentary alone is worth the price of the book. This book is a must have for anyone interested in the saxophone. We can only hope that it inspires a whole new genre of similar products for other instruments and musical styles.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:


Good but not IN DEPTH  Nov 07, 2002 By nadav haber
I love the blues, and as a saxophone player I was happy to get this book. What the book has is transcriptios of about 15 solos in styles ranging from the roughest Chicago blues to Sonny Rollins sophisticated chord changes.
There is a CD where the author plays those solos accompanied by his band.
before every solo there is one page, half of which is a short history of the stylist whose solo is transcribed, and half which is a theoretical reference.
The solos are good to learn, and may provide a good exercise for playing blues. But the theoretical explanation is lacking and is certainly not IN DEPTH.
I do recommand the book as it has some good blues ideas, and shows respect for some of the underrated blues stylists.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:


Blues Saxophone  Oct 28, 2002 By Terry R. Hummer
This is a valuable book, mainly because there is no other on the subject. The CD is good--Mr. Taylor's performances in the styles of many blues players are impressive. However, while the subtitle of the book promises "in-depth" examination or analysis of the styles of "the Masters," what we get is hardly that; the text entries, with biographical information included, range from 1/2 a page at the least (Bobby Forte) to 1 1/3 pages at the most (Lester Young, Sonny Rollins) -- and no one can claim to do an "in-depth" study of Lester's or Sonny's blues styles in 1 1/3 pages with bio included! Also, the discographies, while useful, are hardly complete. If you are a blues sax player -- especially a beginner, or someone turning the corner from jazz into blues (no, they AREN'T the same -- as Taylor underscores, they are related but ultimately distinct traditions), this book can be useful; and it's good that these players, many of them fairly well forgotten, are represented. But there's room for a much more complete -- "in-depth" -- version of this book.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


Finally, a book about the blues that sticks to the blues!  Aug 12, 2002
This is exactly what I have been looking for....
Most tutorials contain uninteresting studies which bear no relation to real modern saxophone playing. Blues Saxophone by Dennis Taylor offers students a clear approach to playing authentic blues. The sax examples played are in a neutral, scholastic style by Dennis Taylor who then advises students to listen to the original recordings of the various artists in order to get the "feel" of each individual style.
My only criticism would be that the original recordings are not included on the cd together with the recordings by the author.
However, from a saxophonist who has always had to deal with learning the sax through jazz studies, as most modern music schools snob the blues as "too simplistic" I have finally found a valuable tool to help me continue to develop my own style of improvising in the blues by using simple tricks and effects learnt from this book as opposed to complex jazz phrasing which are fun to play but difficult to apply to improvisation.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:


The Best Tutorial for R&B/Rock Sax  Oct 25, 2002 By Leonard "Lenny P"
Imagine trying to learn the playing styles of blues legends just by listening to their records. Anyone who has tried to transcribe those fantastic, complex, and wonderful licks knows just how hard a task this is. Well, this book/CD has done it for you. You can listen to 2 pages worth of solo, and follow-along on the transcription. Then you can practice the piece at your own pace until you master it well enough to play along.

Any student of saxophone styles who is serious about learning how to play R&B/Rock saxophone needs to add this piece to their library. After a 30 year interruption in my sax playing, I started up again this year, and just recently found this set. I consider it one of the most valuable pieces in my library.