HW: Careful use of the saxophone

[Jon Jarrett]

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Mark Jermy wrote:

> a question for those who've seen Jez Huggett on stage with HW: what do you
> think of the way he plays the sax? I like the presence of the sax, but I
> think he plays it in a very different way to Nik. Of course, Jez is bound to
> come in for some criticism because he'll always be compared to Nik, and he
> will always do things in his own style i.e. slightly differently. However, I
> feel there is a fundamental difference: Nik always played coherent muscial
> structures, usually going smoothly up and down that scale (this is true also
> of his playing with ICU), whereas Jez' style seems more like jazz sax which
> includes dissonant leaps over large parts of the scale. I've never found
> this very pleasant, it seems gratituous to me. What do you think folks?

        I think he's a tremendously good player, in as you say a jazz
style, though I thought his break on `Angels of Death' at the Astoria is
as yet unequalled. He's better on the saxophone than Nik in terms of
anything except having fun, although Nik doesn;t actually play so badly
these days, always in tune at least now which you can tell from the old
recordings even if like me you didn't see it wasn't always the case.

        My only problem with JH is that at Croydon the band slowed down
the number to let him solo. They wouldn't do it for any other member of
the band and they're not playing jazz so stop that and carry on with the
blanga, say I, because his solo is much more impressive when it somehow
blends with a band going at it hammer and tongs than it is when that's all
there is to listen to. That's my take on it anyway.

> Does anyone know if Jez plays the flute? I thought I saw a flute in his rack
> on stage at Croydon but don't remember it being played. Much underestimated
> rock instrument I think. I've always liked Nik's flute contributions, as
> well as Ian Anderson's in Jethro Tull.

        Yes, he does, but then Nik's actually quite good at flute and I
couldn't really hear JH when he was playing it so I'm loath to make the
comparison here. Interested in some views from anyone who actually plays
the things though. Yours,
                          Jon

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     Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)      jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk