This weeks jazz artist of the week is the great tenor sax player Warne Marsh. Who you may ask? Well many of you out there in the jazz world may not be familiar with the name Warne Marsh but you may be more familiar with the recordings he did with the group Supersax. What? Still drawing a blank? If your not familiar then get hip! Warne is one of the true under recorded and under acknowledged legends of the tenor sax. I actually had the privilege of taking sax lessons from Warne at a local Pasadena music store in the early 70's and later on at his home. At the time I started my lessons I was a teenager who didn't even know how to play a single note or hold a saxophone and here I was studying with a jazz legend. Incredible! I just recently re-read a book about Warne's life (see photo) titled An Unsung Cat. This book title came from an interview with sax great Branford Marsalis when asked what he thought about Warne Marsh and his comments were "Warne was a really unsung cat". Although an acquired taste is needed to fully appreciate Warne's playing, his music is definitely worth checking out! Me? I have about 15 of Warne's cd's along with a few others he did with Art Pepper as well as some with Pete Christlieb. Although there is not a lot of video of Warne performing, here is an early clip of Warne with Lee Konitz that I was unable to paste into this blog but go to the link and check it out!
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