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15 Famous Saxophone Players In The World

saxophone players
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Here we go guys, In this article, we will be looking for the most famous Saxophone Players in the world. The instrument Saxophone has been a staple of jazz music for decades and is an excellent addition to any group. 

The saxophone is one of the most iconic and recognizable instruments globally. Saxophonists have contributed to culture, including jazz, rock and roll, classical, and pop. The saxophone is often regarded as a symbol of the American Dream due to its popularity in the United States. Here are a few of the best saxophone players in the world.

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15 Famous Saxophone Players In The World

15 – Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon
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Dexter Gordon was one of the famous jazz tenor saxophonists & songwriters, born on February 27, 1923, & died on April 25, 1990. He was among the most significant early bebop musicians. His music described as being “large” and great and he had a predilection to play behind the beat. He won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, for the soundtrack album The Other Side of Round Midnight (Blue Note Records, 1986).

14 – Benny Carter

Benny Carter
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Bennett Lester Carter was a popular male jazz saxophonist, trumpeter & composer, born on August 8, 1907, & died on July 12, 2003. During the 1980s and ’90s, he nominated for eight Grammy Awards, which contained receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. He had an unusually protracted career that endured into the 1990s. One of the most famous saxophone players in the world.

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13 – Johnny Hodges

Johnny Hodges saxophone players
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Cornelius “Johnny” Hodges, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington’s big band, was born on July 25, 1907, & died on May 11, 1970. He considers one of the classic alto saxophone players of the big band era (along with Benny Carter). One of the most famous saxophone players in the world. His playing became one of the identifying voices of the Ellington orchestra.

12 – Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet
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Sidney Bechet was a jazz famous saxophonist, and composer, born on May 14, 1897, & died on May 14, 1959. He was one of the foremost influential soloists in jazz and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong.

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11 – Michael Brecker

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Michael Leonard Brecker was one of the most influential jazz saxophonists, born on March 29, 1949, & died on January 13, 2007. He won 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and songwriter. In 2004, He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music, and in 2007, inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. One of the most famous saxophone players in the world.

10 – Ben Webster

Ben Webster
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Benjamin Francis Webster was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, born on March 27, 1909, & died on September 20, 1973. He played with Lester Young in the Young Family Band.

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9 – Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter saxophone players
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Wayne Shorter was one of the famous American jazz saxophonists, born on August 25, 1933. He recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader. Also, has won 11 Grammy Awards. One of the most famous saxophone players in the world. He was applauded for his ability with the soprano saxophone since swapping his focus from the tenor in the late 1960s.

8 – Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman
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Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, born on March 9, 1930, and died on June 11, 2015. In the mid-1970s, Coleman started the group Prime Time and explored funk and his vision of Harmolodic music. AllMusic called him “one of the most important innovators of the jazz avant-garde”.

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7 – Cannonball Adderley

Cannonball Adderley saxophone players
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Julian Edwin “Cannonball” Adderley was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s, born on September 15, 1928, & died on August 8, 1975. Adderley marks best recognized for the 1966 soul jazz single “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”

6 – Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins
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Walter Theodore “Sonny” Rollins is a popular American jazz tenor saxophonist who marks as one of the most important and momentous jazz musicians, born on September 7, 1930. In a seven-decade profession, he has recorded around sixty albums as a supervisor. Rollins has been called “the most amazing living improviser” and the “Saxophone Colossus”. One of the most famous saxophone players in the world.

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5 – Stan Getz

Stan Getz saxophone players
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Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophonist, Born on February 2, 1927, & died on June 6, 1991. Getz was known as “The Sound” because of his friendly, lyrical style. Also, Getz performed in bebop and cool jazz groups.

4 – Lester Young

Lester Young
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Lester Willis Young was a famous jazz tenor saxophonist, born on August 27, 1909, & died on March 15, 1959. Young was one of the most influential musicians in his musical instrument. He played with a peaceful, cool tone and used cultivated harmonies.

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3 – Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins saxophone players
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Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, born on November 21, 1904, & died on May 19, 1969. Hawkins’s biographer John Chilton conveyed the prevailing styles of tenor saxophone solos previous to Hawkins as “mooing” and “rubbery belches.”

One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: “there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn”

2 – Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker
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Charles Parker Jr. aka “Bird” was one of the most popular American jazz saxophonists & band leaders, born on August 29, 1920, & died on March 12, 1955. Do you know guys? Parker was an extraordinarily fast virtuoso and introduced extreme harmonic conceptions into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. One of the most famous saxophone players in the world. He was known for the very transparent, sweet, and eloquent notes he could produce from the saxophone.

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1 – John Coltrane

John Coltrane saxophone players
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John William Coltrane was a popular American jazz saxophonist and songwriter, Born on September 23, 1926, & died on July 17, 1967. He was one of the most significant saxophonists in music history and has obtained multiple posthumous awards like a Pulitzer Prize in 2007, and was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.

He directed at least fifty recording sessions and collaborated on many albums by other musical artists, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.