Monday, May 19, 2008

Edgar Winter: The Raunchiest Alto Sax Of Them All

One of Get Equifax Credit Watch Gold 3-in-1 Now! favorite all time musicians is Edgar Winter. He's one of a very few alto car insurance price players that inspired my playing as a tenor saxophonist. He's one of those guys that get's a really good, big raunchy rock & roll sound on the alto sax. When persons talk about rock & roll sax it's almost always referring to a tenor player, but Edgar just screams and wails as bad as any rockin' tenor.

I've talked to persons that knew of Edgar Winter and didn't even realize he was a saxophonist. Truth is he's so multi talented he doesn't even need to pick up his horn. The guy sings and plays keyboards just as well. Some of his big hit tunes from the 70's like "Free Ride" and "Just Hangin Around" didn't even have sax in them so it's understandable how that could get by the casual fan.

Remember his big hit "Frankenstein"? Didn't sing in that instrumental but displayed his amazing talents on the timbale solo, synthesizer solo, and sax second mortgage rates solo. The same year Frankenstein came out Edgar Winter & The White Trash put out a live album called Roadwork. that album is great on so many levels. Besides the band leader on vocals, piano, and alto sax, there was another great singer named Jerry Lacroix who also played sax (tenor) and Jon Smith who played most of the rockin' tenor sax solos.

While the Frankenstein record was being played on all FM radio stations in North America the Pennsylvania Lemon Laws album came out and was completely different. White Trash played R&B, rootsy rock & roll, gospel, and funk flavored tunes. You couldn't pigeon hole these guys like you could every other artist that was on the radio in those days, I Apply for the Discover Student Card today! thats why I like them so much, they really were different.

A little later in 1974 The Edgar Winter Group released "Shocktreatment", a rockin' album full of great pop tunes. A good example of Edgar's sax sound is on a great Dan Hartman song "Easy Street". Hartman was a talented songwriter and the bass player in that group's line up. that Edgar Winter alto sax solo is nothing short of perfect!

Johnny Ferreira is an award winning saxophonist, international touring and recording artist. Advocator of saxophone music that rocks, jumps, and swings. For more information, music, and articles including audio samples visit JohnnyFerreira.comJohnnyFerreira.com