i still have a crush on paula abdul

people will occasionally ask me how old i am or, in an effort to be mathematically sleuthy, in which year i was born.  i try to hide my age from all inquiring minds, but i fear that my salt & pepper beard and receding hairline (both qualities that my wife, who rarely reads this, just loves) are giving me away.  and my pop culture references that get blank responses from my students.  and probably a bit of my fashion sense, but at least folks are nice enough to let that slide.

i am a product of the 80s.  i grew up on long distance dedications, super fudge, the millennium falcon, tab, moonlighting, donruss, charles in charge, and the lost art of the mixtape.  in an effort to resist the local country radio station, i pledged my allegiance to Q102.5.  they played "all of today's best music".  without knowing any better, i cut my teeth on steve winwood, simply red, duran duran, etc. my first real solo (you know, out in public) was the opening six bars of "greatest american hero" in some lukewarm medley of pop tunes for middle school band.  i followed up my debut with a solo version of the willie nelson/julio iglesias sensation "to all the girls i've loved before" that following summer at the union county fair, backed by a choir of bleating sheep.

i would never practice out of my lesson book.  i would try to just sightread the songs in my weekly band lesson, mistakenly thinking i had mr. rissler fooled.  instead, i would spend many saturday afternoons playing along with the radio (in some pretty lousy keys) while my mom was perched behind her sewing machine, one eye on the seam and the other on the clock.  the jams on the fm dial often had nice saxophone solos tucked into them.  even some tv shows featured the king of instruments.



i'll confess that i have a penchant for and respect the pop saxophone guys.  i dig lenny pickett's snl stratospheric lines, gerald albright's cutting tone, kirk whalum's robust sound, branford's work with sting, and brecker's laundry list of pop appearances.  participation ribbons go out to marc russo, clarence clemons, ernie watts, and charlie dechant.

my guy for the longest time was eric leeds.  he played with prince on a bunch of my favorite albums, including "parade" and "sign o' the times".  what a great gig!!!  he played so great in a supportive capacity, never calling for the ball but was always in the right place at the right time.

a couple weeks back, the wife and i had a quick dinner at chili's after getting t.j. maxxed out.  i made a pit stop at the bathroom before we hit the road.  as i cozied up to the urinal, i heard a great '80s song through the speakers.  i was all alone, so the lip syncing ensued.  i finished my business, zipped up, and stood still in front of the urinal with the motion sensor.  i didn't want it to flush during the saxophone solo, which i was fingering on my hips.  an old farmer guy, who had obviously just come back from the fair, walked in and gave me the weirdest look.  i waited until the solo was over, then stepped away and let modern technology to do its thing.

that got me thinking ... why has the saxophone fallen out of popularity?  katy perry, lady gaga, and ke$ha have managed to implement saxophone solos into their repertoire.  bon iver and laurie anderson both use bass saxophonist colin stetson, and jeff coffin picked up the sax chair with dave matthews.  jimmy kimmel's bandleader is a tenor player, and jimmy fallon has the occasional saxophonist sitting in with the roots.  but is that it?  tell me we aren't diminished to a caricature of ourselves, with big thanks going to sergio.

some of the best saxophone solos i know appear in pop tunes. below is a snapshot of my favorites, not to be confused with a comprehensive list.  want one?  follow this link to a guy who gives out grades.  and now, in no particular order...

* hands to heaven - breathe
* careless whisper - wham
* you belong to the city - glenn frey
* take me home tonight - eddie money
* maneater - hall & oates
* caribbean queen - billy ocean
* sade - smooth operator
* mediate - inxs
* heart of rock & roll - huey lewis and the news

and this one...