Ah, the saxophone: I'm sure we can all agree, objectively one of the best instruments. And this week we're treated to a sax masterclass: as the back cover helpfully explains, we've got Sonny Rollins ("the 'boss' of modern tenor sax") on the left channel, and Coleman Hawkins ("the father of jazz saxophone") on the right.¹ These are indisputably two masters of the instrument, live in improvisational conversation with one another, and what a conversation it is.

But first! Since we're on the topic of the saxophone, there's something I positively have to get out of my system. Please enjoy this series of increasingly absurd fun facts that never fail to delight me:

• The saxophone was invented in the early 1840s by Adolphe Sax. So it really just is a "Sax-o-phone." For some reason I always thought it'd be deeper than that.
• But Sax didn't stop at his phone: he also graced us with his saxhorn, saxtuba, and—who could forget?—the dulcet saxotromba. Also, this thing:

• But those pitiful horns could only deafen a man at close range. Sax had greater ambitions: his "Saxtonnerre" (a locomotive-powered… organ?) was designed to be heard all across Paris, without any amplification. (This one never made it past the concept stage.)
• At this point, you might have pigeonholed Sax as a designer of niche instruments. Not so; he was a true renaissance man—when he saw the devastation wrought by prolonged sieges in war, he designed the perfect solution: a cannon so giant that rather than besiege a city, one could simply level the entire city with a single shot. He called it—all together now!—the "Saxocannon." Mercifully, it was never built.²

Even by my loose standards, that's a signficant digression. How's the actual album this week?

It's a hoot and a holler! And a times a screech, and also occasionally a… plaintive whine? Point is, there's lots of sounds coming out of the saxophones, including a bunch that I wasn't expecting and a few that frankly I don't associate with competent saxophonists. And yet somehow, it all works? I mean, just listen to this snippet from the end of "Lover Man":

You cannot tell me in good faith that no saxophones were hurt in the making of this album. But you also cannot tell me that their pain was in vain.

Favourite track: All the Things You Are