Mark Maxwell, Saxophonist

I don’t spend a lot of time sitting in bars drinking. But as many of you know, I do enjoy the occasional martini with Roberta and sometimes with some friends.

One night we were up in Nevada City at a cute little spot called Friar Tuck’s and we got into giving ourselves bar names. Mine was, as I recall, Maximus Saximus, or some such elevated nonsense (although  it seemed quite fitting at the time). Roberta’s name, however, was pretty cool: Angelina Biscotti, or, in English, Angel Biscuit.

I, of course, thought, “What a great song title.” See how capricious song title genesis can be? Just so happens I had a new song waiting for a good title.

My little Angel Biscuit. Kiss me on the lips.

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Imagine - It’s 2 A.M., you’re driving through downtown San Francisco on Freeway 80…

…you’ve driven too many miles, drank too much coffee, you need to stop and sleep but you don’t - you end up with this almost mystical feeling about The City you’re passing by, like there is some magic to it, some mystery that is just beyond your seeing, something palpable but inexplicable about the place, a majesty perhaps - San Francisco, the Goddess of Cities, the Beautiful Jewel on the Bay.

Anyway, that’s how I feel, especially at the end of one of those late night LA to SF drives where you feel like you’re tripping because you’re so wired on coffee, Snickers, and XM Beyond Jazz - very surreal!

And that’s the feeling of this week’s song, Freeway 80, kind of a mystical majesty, a sense of transcendent beauty and calm seen from afar.

Somehow I ended up doing three versions of Freeway 80. The first version is the original version, very full and lush with a fairly simple sax line. The second version, Roberta’s favorite, is slower and more sultry with more space in it, very beautiful. Version three, my favorite, is a little more stark and intense, and features some cool echo and delay effects on the sax.

(You’ll hear a slight bit of harmonica in version three; that’s my buddy Paul Michael Meredith.)

Take a little trip on Freeway 80. And enjoy the ride. Buy the song(s) here.

Freeway 80 (Three Versions):

1.

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Have Sax, Will Travel

Indeed, I travel a lot, and always with the sax. I habitually lean a little left because the sax is always on my shoulder.

I’ve been playing the saxophone since 1964, 43 years now! Wow! Somebody give me an honorary doctorate.

I do make house calls. That’s a lot of fun…

This one’s a lot of fun. Initially, it was my attempt to do a song in the Down To The Bone style, groovin’ on a riff in a celebratory style, funk/jazz/soul all wrapped up.  It ended up being kind of a smooth jazz saxophone celebration of life.

I invited my friend, Joe Fajen, to join me on the trombone on this tune. The trombone gives the sound a slightly Jazz Crusaders feel. Tenor and Bone - what a great sound!

Dr. Saxophone At Your Service. Let me know how I can help.

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Are you hip to the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument)?

I’m just finishing a rather torrid month of simultaneously being on the road and moving, an exhausting combination that I can really recommend for encouraging one to surrender. Subsequently, this week’s song is from the archives.

This is the original version of a song featured on Saxual Healing. On this version, I play the whole first part of the tune on the EWI. For some unrecalled reason, I’ve always thought that this was the inferior of the two versions, but listening to it now, man I think I like it even better than the version on Saxual Healing. What do you think?

As on all the Saxual Healing tunes, I play all the instruments.

Hey, infuse yourself with a Little Bit ‘O Soul Now (EWI Version), this week’s Song-A-Week.

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(For those of you who were paying attention, this song was included in last week’s mailing as a “will probably never see the light of day so I’ll include it here” song. Lo and behold, it was requested that I offer it for sale; thus, it morphed rather conveniently into this week’s song.)

Hey, next week, new music! Some cool stuff, too.

Did you know I have a brother who is also a professional saxophonist?

Yes, it’s true. My younger brother, Phillip, is also a professional musician back in Indiana (the ancestral homeland), a very talented singer and guitar player, and a wailin’ sax blowin’ man!

A few years ago Phil came out to CA and spent a few days visiting his big brother. While he was here, I corralled him into the studio and recorded a version of “It’s Your Thing,” the great funk tune by the Isley Brothers.

Phil plays all the guitar parts and he and I sing the background vocals and play the background saxes together. I do the rest. Note that I sampled the intro of the original tune, lowered it a whole step and slowed it down a bit for this version. Cool, huh?

Here you go my brothers and sisters, our version of It’s Your Thing, this week’s Song-A-Week.