Jazz Saxophone Players

Jazz is rooted in the African American society of the 1920s, so it's normal that the first jazz players were black. We can’t really classify the initial jazz saxophone players as forming a distinct social group since they came from various backgrounds and had different levels of education (both basic and musical education). That’s how one would explain the mixture of “educated” and folk influences on jazz music.

There’s a slight dispute revolving around jazz sax players, some stating that the genre should be considered solely “black music” because of its African American roots and because of the fact that most of the famous jazz players were black. Wynton Marsalis, Reggie Workman, Pharaoh Sanders or Louis Armstrong are some of the exponential black jazz saxophone players of that time, their influence in African American society oftentimes going beyond music. Louis Armstrong is generally accepted as the most popular jazz player of all times.

Although this dispute is not very intense these days, one could conclude that any extreme view upon jazz as being “solely” black or white music is wrong. Jazz is often referred to as being “black music played on white instruments”, a link to the fact that the saxophone, trumpet and the other major instruments used in jazz are of European origin. And since America offered some of the finest jazz saxophone players of all time, the color of their skin should not even be taken into consideration. Actually, the cultural diversity of jazz players beautifully expresses the multi-cultural nature of America.

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