The Sax Men

Clarence Clemons died on Saturday. I am...super bummed about it. For those of you uncultured swine who live under a rock, Clarence Clemons, aka The Big Man, was the saxophonist (or as Nigel Barker said Britishly/awesomely on SYTYCD last week "Sax-OFF-on-ist") in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. All those awesome Bruce songs? Would be nothing without Clarence Clemons. Well, almost nothing. Saxophones play such a HUGE role in making rock n roll the very best it can be, and I think it's so frustrating when people don't realize that.

When I was in 4th grade, we got to pick what instrument we wanted to take lessons in. I didn't really know all that much about the wide world of musical instruments. My first instinct was that I wanted to play drums, because I imagine my alter-ego is Animal from the Muppets. But I had recently played around on my cousin's drumset, and found that it was actually pretty boring. Plus, my mom immediately put the kibosh on any chance of my playing such a noisy instrument. But what else was equally cool? Then it hit me: the saxophone. How cool are sax players?

Two sax players stood out to me at that age. Well, Kenny G, but he was a joke. More importantly, I loved Bruce and the E Street Band from many a summer drive with my dad. I knew of the Big Man, and his epic talents. Also, my brother and sister were huge Dave Matthews Band fans, and I pretty much had heard all of their music through bedroom walls. Dave had LeRoi Moore on sax, who was JUST AS EPIC as Clarence. Part of the reason I always loved DMB is that they're not just the ol' Guitar, Bass, Drums gang, they have a sax man, AND a violinist (Boyd Tinsley is ALSO the bomb diggity). It just adds so much more depth to their music. With these two rockin dudes on sax turning the music world on its head, if I learned the sax, MAYBE I TOO COULD BE A BIG AWESOME BLACK MAN!

Sadly, LeRoi died in 2008 from complications from an ATV accident. And his death got...almost no publicity. I was shocked. I could not believe that this amazing musician from a popular band had died suddenly, and it was getting no press. He wasn't even included in the Grammy's In Memorium montage, which INFURIATED me, because they include everyone from producers to songwriters, and yet LeRoi wasn't in there anywhere?

When I heard last week that Clarence Clemons had had a stroke, I was worried, but I was hoping hoping hoping he would pull through. Sadly, he did not, but I am so pleased to see that his death is getting the attention it's deserves. On Saturday, both Facebook and Twitter were blowing up with tributes and messages of mourning and sadness. There's an article in People Magazine already, and I'm sure Rolling Stone will have something to say. The outpouring of support made me proud that even though my generation oftentimes seems to have wretched taste in music, and no appreciation for the classics, this man, who had contributed so much to the music world, was getting the recognition he deserved. Whoever's in charge of this year's Grammy's In Memorium montage: take note.

I leave you with this...some of the very best representations of both Clarence Clemons and LeRoi Moore at their finest.

You know you have a good saxophonist when he gets a three minute solo in the middle of the song. Skip to 4:20 if you don't want to watch the whole thing:



One of my very favorite DMB songs ever, with LeRoi's sax driving the whole thing: