Music & Saxophone

Music has always been a part of my life since I was a little boy. My mom and dad used to play music constantly around the house; especially when we went on road trips, they would have the latest album playing in the car. I couldn’t go anywhere in the house or anywhere near my parents without hearing music or my mother sing the songs she was listening to.

I could tell the story how Music has had a relationship with me since I was very young but that’s another post. Let’s fast forward to when I was in fourth grade. It was beginning of the school year and I signed up for band. All I remember is when I walked into the band room I saw this beautiful instrument sitting on the table. It was a saxophone. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. What I remember back then, was that all the kids were getting assigned instruments. I wanted to play that instrument, but the teacher had the trumpet in mind. What I do remember is when I went home, I begged my parents to get me a saxophone. All the instruments have been taken at school and the teacher wanted me to play trumpet. Somehow I was able to convince my parents to rent a saxophone. I remember bringing it to school and the look on the teachers face. I remember her not being very happy that I brought an instrument from home. Either way I was able to play it in the band, but getting help was challenging. The teacher never showed much interest in helping me to progress on the instrument. I just remember taking it home and just learning it because I just wanted to. I remember that Hal Leonard School book. It was an instruction book on how to play instruments, in particular saxophone.

I had to teach myself to read by writing the letter names above the notes and learning the music by ear until I figured it out. I did that for a long time. What it did, was help me to develop my ear and eventually I would learn to read music as well. Looking back at that moment made me realize just help passionate I was about the instrument and learning it. It was something about the saxophone that drew me to it. I just knew it was something about that saxophone that would be with me for the rest of my life.

I love playing the saxophone, the way it looks, the way it feels in my hands, the way it sounds. There’s nothing like it.

Antonio b. Jackson

The saxophone never left my side as a kid

I would go home during the summers, and put my instrument in the closet and it would sit there all summer, but I never forgot to take it to school at the beginning of the school year. It was always there with me. My mom told me that I was always proud to have my case with me, not matter what.

When everything changed.

I played the band for many years, always taking my instrument home. It wasn’t until the summer of my junior going into my senior year that I discovered this incredible album. The album was titled “Winelignt” by Grover Washington Junior. It was the most beautiful thing I ever heard. I must’ve played this album dozens of times, listening to it while at the same time being transformed into different places and spaces. All this came from an instrumental saxophone album. I loved the album so much that I started to learn it and played it. I must’ve learned every song on the record, from the Melody to every solo on my alto saxophone. I just learned it because I love the way it sounded and I wanted to sound like that. I wanted to make my instrument make me feel the way his did. My mother heard me playing every day and decided to do something about it. She found this program in Minneapolis called the ‘Urban Center for Talented Youth”. She eventually enrolled me in it, a program that only lasted for a couple weeks. I ended up going, and there is where I met Thomas Wells. He would eventually become my band teacher at North high School where I was going to attend for my senior year. That’s when everything changed.

• Jazz Saxophonist. This is when the saxophonist plays music that is based upon the foundation of the instrument and the music of Jazz. Traditional jazz with its foundations in history and the creation of this American Art form. The music is rooted in history, social economic progression, historical racism, and the expression of a group of people that have been tarnished, torn, broken, yet overcoming all of the perils that American American history has dealt. Some names that come to mind… Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis just the name a few.
• Smooth Jazz Saxophonist. This is where the music is of a more polished format utilizing some elements of jazz, rhythm and blues and funk. The music and the player are usually tailored to fit a radio commercial format. The music is considered easy listening and friendly to those who are not familiar with the complexities of traditional jazz music.
• Contemporary Jazz Saxophonist. The contemporary jazz saxophonist utilizes elements of smooth jazz and traditional jazz to create a more edgier yet user-friendly version of instrumental compositions. This music is usually funky, rhythm based while fused greater harmonic complexities than smooth jazz yet sometimes combining the tempo driven and as focused approach of traditional jazz, yet still modern.

While there are many other forms of jazz, from Modal to Avant, fusion, funk, Acid, etc., and many others, I personally work within these three realms. I am first a jazz musician, but because I grew up listening to R&B music, I write and perform somewhere in between the Contemporary, Smooth, R&B, Gospel and Traditional jazz world. Yet, as a ‘Jazz Musician’ I should have no problem walking into any jazz club anywhere in the world and playing songs like ‘Cherokee’, ‘Impressions’, ‘Giant Steps’, ‘Have You Met Miss Jones’, or any of the traditional standards from the real book.

Destiny. Purpose. Calling.

I just love the saxophone. Not because of anybody else, but just because there is just something deep down inside. It was never a choice, instead it was something that I believe GOD called me to do. I went to school to become an architect and engineer and music was just something I was going to do on the weekends. Instead, it just drew me in more and more. Not just the saxophone, but music. It’s been calling me all my life ever since I was small. I would listen to my grandmother play Hymns on her little mini organ. She would sing and play. My mother would sing around the house and music was always playing. I just would always ‘feel’ the sounds and the rhythm. I can’t full explain, I just knew what I felt.

To this day, many decades later I still I love to practice, I love to perform, I love to create. I love to share those experiences and I love to inspire those around me to do the same. The saxophone gives me the outlet for the expression of life. The creation of music and sound aids in that process. While I am a pro saxophonist, I still have so much more to learn. This journey will never end, and I love that! The evolution as an Artist, a Jazz musician and as a man is a constant. It’s a beautiful and learning process that encompasses ‘life experience’. For all of that… the praise GOD and thank Him every day for the opportunity to keep doing it day after day.