To Play, Or Not To Play The Soprano

Playing the soprano saxophone for me has been a life-changing journey that has restored my curiosity and excitement about playing music at a time when it was hard to imagine myself continuing down--what I considered at the time to be--this congested musical highway, on which I was driving blindly without a clear artistic illusion in sight.

I have often equated the process of switching from the tenor sax to being like “jumping off of a cliff and having to grow wings on the way down.” As I have grown and developed as a soprano saxophonist over the years, it has become increasingly frustrating to see how lightly the instrument is taking by critics and musicians. If you look at the Downbeat Critics Poll, the soprano saxophone category is treated as if though it’s not worthy of the serious thought that goes into choosing players who are deserving of recognition on the instrument. Many of the players who appear in the “Rising Star” section hardly play the instrument--except for those occasional ballads in ¾ time or those “Afro-Blue” sounding tunes that saxophonists occasionally record on soprano.

Of course, no set of guidelines should be put into place to determine who should or should not be allowed to play the instrument. As a matter of fact, I strongly encourage saxophonists to do so whenever possible--studying the soprano teaches one valuable lessons about intonation and breathing that can be applied to all of the saxophones.

But the problem that I see, lies not in the fact that inexperienced saxophonists record and perform on the instrument, but in the fact that when others emulate this undeveloped sound, it then becomes the sonic status quo, so to speak, consequently, setting, in my opinion, a lower standard for sound production than what you have for the other members of the saxophone family. I say this because, the first time that I put on a Steve Lacy record, I thought to myself, “This guy’s sound is peculiar.” As a matter of fact, what sounded weird was the fact that it was full-bodied and focused—all of the things we demand from other horns without question. But for some reason, when it comes to the soprano saxophone, players have psyched themselves into thinking that the instrument is so difficult to play, that having any goal other than playing it in tune seems a bit far fetched. It’s hard to imagine a saxophonist being happy with their sound on the tenor or alto saxophones just because they’re in tune.

Which actually reminds me of a conversation that I had when Gerry Teekens, the producer and founder of Criss Cross Records, the label with whom I recorded my first CD Sam I AM. One day, while hanging out at one of his numerous recordings that he was producing that week, I told him that I had decided, for artistic reasons, to stop playing the tenor saxophone and make the soprano my main instrument. His subsequent response was classic. “Why would you want to do that? --You sound just like Hank Mobley and Sonny Rollins.” I then explained that that was exactly the reason why. I was finding it increasingly difficult to find a sound on the tenor that I felt I could call my own. Which for me was the most important thing. The current set of beliefs in jazz education teaches students to value “licks and phrases” over the actual sound that they use to play them. And it’s certainly understandable why this Jamey Abersold-approach is the preferred method.

One reason for this being that licks and phrases are more easily explained theoretically, consequently, they become easier to present in a codified way. And the second reason being that sound is a very personal process, and usually instrument-specific. Therefore, it is better taught in the context of a private lesson than in a classroom. But I feel that to have your own voice, it must first start with the sound that you produce and that the ideas should all originate from there. And I felt the soprano afforded me that very opportunity.

Later in my conversation with Gerry Teekens, he then told me that making that kind of decision was risky because the soprano as an instrument is very limiting. And even though I did understand why he felt that way, I went on to explain that the only reason that he, and many others felt that way, is because people haven’t had the chance to hear the result of someone having spent three to four hours a day, over the course of several decades, devoted solely to developing his or her sound and approach on that instrument. And even though there are a handful of saxophonists who have been able to successfully carve out a niche for them on the instrument, it is still a relatively small number to the innovations that have been documented on other instruments. Try to imagine what our perception of the tenor saxophone would be like without the diversity of approaches to compare and contrast from Lester Young to Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins to John Coltrane, Stan Getz to Albert Ayler, and so on.

Will the soprano ever be viewed with same reverence as other instruments? I guess only time will tell. Steve Lacy said that he remembers a time when the only two modern jazz soprano saxophonists were he and John Coltrane. Today, that is no longer the case.

Personally, I feel very optimistic about the future. I do foresee a day when junior high band students will have the option to play the soprano, rather than just being limited to the usual alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. And as instrument makers continue to improve the instrument, along musicians continuing to write and perform music written for the instrument. I see a new day, when the soprano will be on top, not just in register, but in reverence.