Wherein five jazz saxophonists “slum” and make truly indelible contributions to five well-loved and much-played rock songs.
Considering one of the all-time ALL TIME greats (Sonny Rollins) is on this list, an anecdote from the sessions seems in order:
MICK JAGGER: “I had a lot of trepidation about working with Sonny Rollins. This guy’s a giant of the saxophone. Charlie said, ‘He’s never going to want to play on a Rolling Stones record!’ I said, ‘Yes he is going to want to.’ And he did and he was wonderful. I said, ‘Would you like me to stay out there in the studio?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you tell me where you want me to play and DANCE the part out.’ So I did that. And that’s very important: communication in hand, dance, whatever. You don’t have to do a whole ballet, but sometimes that movement of the shoulder tells the guy to kick in on the beat.”
5. Ronnie Ross on Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side”:
4. Dick Parry on Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them”:
3. David Sanborn on David Bowie’s “Young Americans”:
2. Wayne Shorter on Steely Dan’s “Aja”:
1. Sonny Rollins on The Rolling Stones’ “Waiting on a Friend”:
Bonus insight from Jagger (EPIC!!!):
“I had a lot of trepidation about working with Sonny Rollins. This guy’s a giant of the saxophone. Charlie said, ‘He’s never going to want to play on a Rolling Stones record!’ I said, ‘Yes he is going to want to.’ And he did and he was wonderful. I said, ‘Would you like me to stay out there in the studio?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you tell me where you want me to play and DANCE the part out.’ So I did that. And that’s very important: communication in hand, dance, whatever. You don’t have to do a whole ballet, but sometimes that movement of the shoulder tells the guy to kick in on the beat.
