Solo Saxophone
When I was kicking around ideas for a final project in my acoustics class last semester, I toyed with the idea of comparing sonic profiles of different saxophonists in a solo saxophone context. The project was pretty quickly shot down after my professor pointed out the obvious problem of dealing with the slew of variables beyond my control: different mics, mic placements, recording environments, etc ., which I'd only be able to isolate if I did my own recordings (definitely not interested in checking that out). Although the project ended up being a nonstarter, it ended up as an excuse for me to dig through my library to find instances of extended a capella performances. I found plenty of lengthy cadenzas, but far fewer solo tracks from records. One of the first that came to mind was Joe Henderson's "Lush Life" from Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (1991). There are plenty of transcriptions of this solo floating around the Internet, and I've found my