There was such a surfeit of great sax players in the 1950w that it’s understandable that many got overlooked. Here’s a chance to see what you’ve been missing with a pair of rich reissues from Fresh Sound Records.
Aaron Sachs is not a household name, but he was with a number of important artists such as Shorty Rogers and Red Norvo. This single disc set finds him with some impressive company, giving his ideas to mostly originals in a sound that has “LA Cool” written all over for it, even though it was all recorded in The Big Apple.
He plays both a Lester Young-Zoot Sims inspired tenor, and a stripped down Buddy Defranco-styled clarinet, her in quintet, sextet and octet settings, mixing and matching with Urbie Green/tb, Barry Galbraith-Jimmy Raney-Dick Garcia/g, Aaron Bell-Clyde Lombardi/b, Nat Pierce-Hall Overton/p, Joe Roland/vibes and Osie Johnson/dr. Sachs blows like a West Coaster on “One Track” and is gorgeously fluffy on “Aaron’s Blues”,fluttering on “Conversations” and sublime on “Why Shouldn’t I?’ while digging in on the Basie-ish “Wiggins”. His licorice stick is cool for “Kingfish” and flexible fr ‘Gorme Has Her Day” with a nice bounce for “You’re My Thrill”. Warm and breezy.
Brazilian alto saxist Jose Ferreira “Case” comes from the Art Pepper school of blowing on these two albums recorded in 1958 in either Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo. The quartet with Moacyr Reixoto/p, Luiz Chaves/b and Ruens Barsotti/dr is a bopper, with Peixoto in a Bud Powell mood for the upbeat read of Duke Ellington’s obscure “Cop-Out” and a fervent “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”. The team drives like stallions on “The Lonesome Road” and Barsotti rides the cymbals like a bull whip on “Old Devil Moon”. Peixoto is kept but now with Major Holley/b and Jimmy Campbell/dr for a swaying “Major Blues” and a deep groove of “Out Of Nowhere”. Ferreira sways on “Rough Ridin” and bops till he drops on “Peixoto’s Blues”. Any more of this around?