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Sax Gordon
P.O. Box 410193
Cambridge, MA  02141
USA

 

 

 

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Hi Everybody!!

     OK - summer's here!  Time to hit the road and play some music.  Let's start in Jarnioux, France!  Waddaya Say?  Don't be afraid of airline ticket prices, just keep looking, contrary to what many people say there are still good deals out there.  I got a bargain flying right into Lyon from Boston where I'll be meeting up with my great Italian band Leo Boni and Blue Gadjo (who become The Sax Gordon Band for some of my European gigs).
    
     It'll be a pleasure to be back at the Rapperswil Blues & Jazz Festival in late June (check the SCHEDULE page for details). I was there a few years ago with my own band (w/ special guest Scott Aruda on trumpet!) and also with the always soulful and classy singer Toni Lynn Washington.  It was a beautiful couple of days, I can remember jamming with my friend Boney Fields (the great trumpeter and singer) and his incredibly funky band, getting a private tour through a little circus museum (Rapperswil is the home of Switzerland's most famous circus family - and I'm a big circus fan!), and having a great time walking around this beautiful little city.  Here's some photos from two years ago - I promise not to wear the same outfits again...at least not in Rapperswil!

Gordon & Leo Boni in Rapperswil - 2006 Boney Fields and Gordon in Rapperswil 2006
Gordon & Leo Boni in Rapperswil - 2006                                               Boney Fields and Gordon in Rapperswil 2006 -                                                                                                                           Photo by Remy Steinegger

     In early July I'll be once again joining Doug Jay & the BlueJays for a couple of gigs in Germany and Belgium.  As much fun is it can be to visit new places it can be a blast going back to the places where you've had fun before.  I've had a LOT of fun in Gaildorf, Germany so I'm looking forward to that!  Doug Jay's new CD "Under the Radar" is still hot off the presses.  We did some CD release shows back in March with the full little-big band (it seems to be all over www.youtube.com if ya wanna see...)  "Under the Radar" is a cool disc with many of Doug's typically great tunes mixed with classics like "Losing Hand".  The band is one of the best and I'm very happy with the horn work I got to do on there.  Check it out.

Doug Jay CD - Under the Radar Doug Jay & the BlueJays "Little Big Band"
 

Doug Jay & the BlueJays "Little Big Band" - Thomas Feldmann, Gordon, Jasper Mortier, Doug Jay, Jimmy Reiter, Andre "Werki" Werkmeister, Christian Rannenberg - Germany - March 2008 Photo by Hans Abry


     Also in March was the memorial show for trumpet great Bob Enos.  Bob passed away while on the road with Roomful of Blues, the band he played with for 25 years.  I was in there for about one of those years but I have countless memories of good times with "Bubba" on and off stage. With the Roomful Horns and Canadian Blues-Rock star Colin James we opened shows for the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour, and on Colin's own gigs the rest of Roomful came along to open the shows and what a band it was - still 5 horns with original saxists Doug "Mr. Low" James and Rich Latille, original drummer John Rossi, trombonist/producer Carl Querfurth, Matt McCabe on piano and the great Sugar Ray Norcia singin' out front.  Bob was there when the Roomful Horns backed me up on "Have Horn Will Travel" for my first CD.
     The memorial show in Cranston, RI at Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet featured past and present Roomfullers along with other notable groups like John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. I finally got to meet and hear their great horn man, the classic rock & roll saxist Michael "Tunes" Antunes (remember him in that 1980's movie "Eddie and the Cruisers"?)

Michael "Tunes" Antunes and Gordon at the Bob Enos Memorial Show - Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet - Cranston, RI - March 9, 2008 
Michael "Tunes" Antunes and Gordon at the Bob Enos Memorial Show - Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet - Cranston, RI - March 9, 2008 - photo by Auntie Gail
Carl Querfurth - Gordon - Mark Earley - Rich Latille - the Bob Enos Memorial Show - Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet - Cranston, RI - March 9, 2008
  Carl Querfurth - Gordon - Mark Earley - Rich Latille - the Bob Enos Memorial Show - Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet - Cranston, RI - March 9, 2008 - photo by Scott Savoli

     I got to play on a few tunes and I was proud to be up there with past and present Roomful saxists Greg Piccolo (who I replaced back around 1994), Rich Latille, and Mark EarlyBig Dan Rabinovitz from Solomon Burke's Souls Alive Orchestra played trumpet and it really was a beautiful way to honor the memory of our friend.
Bob Enos
  Bob Enos  July 4, 1947 - January 11, 2008

     After those gigs in March I stuck around Boston for a bit and played with a lot of fun local bands like Diane Blue & the Fatback Band, the Boston Soul Revue, and north shore favorites Mojo Slim

Mojo Slim at Maddy's in Saugus, MA
Mojo Slim at Maddy's in Saugus, MA  - Dave Perkins, Gordon, John "Blue Horn" Moriconi, Lou Wallach, Paul Dever, Mike Marino, Dave Pierce - June, 2008 - photo by April Hunt

     I was still able to get out of town for a few things. It's always nice to work with the people at SuperStarFactory that put together incredible parties and events.  Need a rock star for your party?  Want to give the ultimate gift to a wanna-be rock star you know?  Or maybe you need to unleash your own inner rock star?  Well, go to www.superstarfactory.com and get started!!  See ya there!

 

     I was happy to get a couple of mentions in a recent issue of DownBeat magazine (the May 2008 issue that has somebody named Branford and his band on the cover). They interviewed me for a piece on Blues Festivals and I gave 'em the lowdown.  I even got a little picture and chose the Goovy Jazz & Blues Festival for a special mention. They deserve it! 

     In the same issue is a review of the soundtrack CD from the John Sayles movie "The HoneyDripper" that I did a little bit of music for. Although the CD and movie are worth checking out just to see and hear top blues sax-man Eddie Shaw, it's my horn that sounds off right near the start of the movie (OK, it's kinda in the background...), and on the first track of the soundtrack CD!
 
Honeydripper Honeydripper2 Honeydripper GIF

     Let's get back to the summer!  I got some cool gigs in mid-July with my old pal (well, he's actually not so old!) Raphael Wressnig from the R&B Explosion, only this time we're teaming up with Italian guitarist Enrico Crivellaro and Chicago Blues Diva Deitra Farr for some shows in northern Italy. I wouldn't miss it if I were you!  Here's a shot of Enrico and I and Chicago Blues mainstay Bob Stroger in Campli, Italy a few years ago. Now there's another one of my favorite festivals!
  
Bob Stroger - Enrico Crivellaro - Gordon - Campli Blues Fest - Campli, Italy

     Raphael Wressnig has a new CD out "Cut A Little Deeper On The Funk" that features a lot of the great players he works with including famous sax man Craig Handy.  I did some horn arranging on it and some playing assisted by trumpet player Eric Bloom. You'll probably be hearing more about Eric, stay tuned...
 Gordon and Raphael Wressnig Gordon and Raphael Wressnig
  Gordon and Raphael Wressnig 

     I got a week in France with the very stylish (check out his shirts!) Big Dez in mid-July. We'll be hanging out on the Atlantic coast of southern France where the waves are big and the amps are loud!  Could be some surprises in store, you really should be there!  We'll finish with a show at the famous Cognac Blues Passions Festival, after which I gotta go meet Dr. Joe Castellano and his sensational Big Blues Band.  This is gonna be a show!  Special guests include guitarist Roy Roberts
, Southern Soul singer Simone de Moore, and ex-James Brown saxman Waldo Weathers!  Most of the shows in southern Italy and Sicily are part of the Blues & Wine Soul Festival celebrating ... you guessed it - Blues & Wine!  I had a great time on this as a guest one night last year in Sicily, can't wait to be back! This one you just can't miss... 
 
  Waldo Weathers - Gordon - Dr. Joe Castellano - Blues & Wine Soul Festival 
  Waldo Weathers - Gordon - Dr. Joe Castellano - Blues & Wine Soul Festival - Agrigento, Sicily, Italy - Aug 2007 
 

     Did I mention that I got to play with legendary James Brown MC Danny Ray in Agrigento last year too??!!
Gordon & Danny Ray - Blues & Wine Soul Festival
  Gordon & Danny Ray - Blues & Wine Soul Festival - Agrigento, Sicily, Italy - Aug 2007 - photo by Luca Giordano 
 

     From Sicily I fly straight up to Austria to join my friends in the R&B Explosion for a few dates. The R&B Explosion is a mostly-instrumental quartet featuring myself, Austrian organist Raphael Wressnig and American guitar master Alex Schultz.  Alex is a busy man so on a few dates where he can't make it we'll perform as Raphael Wressnig's Organic Trio featuring Sax Gordon.  We have some dates at the end of August as well in Belgium and Austria, and I'm personally very happy to be going back to beautiful Croatia!
  Alex Schultz and Gordon at Reigen - Vienna, Austria 
  Alex Schultz and Gordon at Reigen - Vienna, Austria _ March 7 2006 - photo by Werner Maresch 
 

     Another thing I gotta tell you about is the new CD "Soul Bender" by Matthew Stubbs.  It's good.  It's all-original, all-instrumental, and I did a bit of horn arranging and a lot of blowing.  Matt's just joined Charlie Musselwhite's band but we're gonna be doing some shows when we both have time off. In mid-August we have an early set at the White Mountain Boogie and Blues Festival up in New Hampshire and in September we'll be doing a little east-coast "Soul Bender" CD release party tour!
 
  Soul Bender 
  A Swingin' Session with Duke Robillard 
 

     Also keep an ear out for the latest Duke Robillard CD "A Swingin Session with Duke Robillard".  I'm very honored to be featured on this disc alongside Duke and other great musicians like my frequent horn-section partner Doug James and famous jazz tenor saxist Scott Hamilton.
 
     Further on down the line there's another little east-coast tour with west-coast guitar great Junior Watson and I'll be back at Marion's JazzRoom in Bern, Switzerland with Al Copley again over New Years.
 
     Have a great summer, support live music, I'll see ya out there!
 
- Gordon
 

Updated 06/22/2008

 


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