Maury Coles: Maury Coles' Solo Saxophone Record (Onari)
Purchased at Jerry's Records
Who's Maury Coles? No clue! (And no intention at the moment of Wikipediaizing him.) But a solo saxophone record, used at Jerry's, on a Canadian label, from the 1970s, sounds like a win/win/win/win to me.
I've considered releasing a solo saxophone album myself, which I guess I should just do and stop thinking about. Something limited run, maybe a custom lathe-cut printing in a small number. Just do it already, Ben.
As Mike Shanley has pointed out, solo saxophone albums are often a catalog of so-called extended techniques, all the "other" sounds the saxophone can produce besides standard notes and pitches. There's a hazard to that: is it just showing off the weird sounds you can make? At the same time, you can say it's all part of the vocabulary of the instrument: every whine, wheeze, fart, squeak, squeal, split tone, is part of the instrument as much as the "notes." Of all the solo saxophone recordings I have, it's Roscoe Mitchell's that is curiously the most traditionally "notey", blowing solo on melodies of his creation.
Maury finds a place in the middle: sometimes melodic, sometimes playing on the sonic potential of the alto saxophone. Notably, this was recorded Nov. 5 1977 at the Music Gallery than none other than John Oswald himself. I still have a cassette of John's solo saxophone playing, which is some of the most extreme that I've heard.
This is the only alum that comes up under Maury's name, with just four other credits on other people's sessions. Seems like a shame, the solo album is worthy of a listen.
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