Avant-jazz-funk ali samo s instrumentima u koje se ili udara ili puše. Saksofona i rodbine ko u priči.
Muzika za nasmijavanje guzice koja pleše, jer sjediti uz ovo nije lako. (Radnja se događa na Borneu.)
streaming ulomaka
www.lennypickettmusic.com/
- Lenny Pickett & the Borneo Horns on MySpace (probably unofficial…no band info, just one uploaded song)
- Lenny Pickett page on NYU Steinhardt School site (yep, he’s a jazz professor)
- Lenny Pickett on Facebook (fan page)
Dancable, avant-edged acoustic jazz, performed only with winds and percussions by New York's Borneo Horns Trio and guests. Leader of trio, the once Tower Of Power reedman, Lenny Pickett, well known also as arranger/ horn section director in many popular artists' albums. Pickett plays tenor sax, clarinets, flutes (pre-recorded flutes & clarinets in "Solo For Saxophone And Tape"). The rest two Borneos are saxophonists Stan Harrison (alto) and Steve Elson (baritone, soprano). Leroy Clouden is on drums. The set though isn't completed without the eclectic contributions of Nelson Bogart on trumpet and flugerhorn, Laurie Frink also on trumpet, Howard Johnson on tuba, DaveBargeron on tuba and trombone, Roger Squitero on various percussions and Ned Sublette on banjo.
The album recorded in NY and released in 1987 on Carthage, sublabel of Hannibal Records.
01fragments.blogspot.com/
Ready for a little trip back into the vaults, kids? Back in 1991, Saturday Night Live saxophonist Lenny Pickett released this now super-obscure and hard-to-find album with his band, the Borneo Horns, which consisted of him and two other sax players (Steve Elson and Stan Harrison), plus a drummer and occasional additional horns. Now, while they’re hardly the only predominantly sax-based band that ever existed (see also: World Saxophone Quartet and one of our favorites, the skronk-tastic Little Women), they’re arguably the funkiest. A typical Borneo Horns joint sounds like a cross between James Brown, a New Orleans parade band and the theme music from Benny Hill. You can’t decide to whether to dance your ass off or laugh your ass off—and both are probably equally valid responses.
I was lucky enough to see the Borneo Horns in college back around the time the album came out (which I swear was in ’89, but Amazon.com has it listed as ’91 and I was admittedly drunk a lot back then) and let me tell you, they could rock it out. Pickett is mostly famous these days for those wailing high notes he squeezes out as that week’s SNL host bounds onto the stage, but he’s also got an amazing sense of rhythm and syncopation. He got his start playing in the horn section of funk band Tower of Power and that stuff is clearly in his blood.
These days, it’s hard to come by much information about the Borneo Horns, let alone their actual music. The one and only Lenny Pickett with the Borneo Horns album is out of print and will set you back upwards of $200 for a used vinyl copy. The blog Music Hertz has a good little piece about the album, and you can hear several Borneo Horns tracks on Lenny Pickett’s sorta cool, sorta annoying official website. But beyond that, the genius of the Borneo Horns has been mostly lost in the mists of time. Which really has me kicking myself, because I used to own a cassette copy of Lenny Pickett with the Borneo Horns and I have no idea where it is now. I purged most of my cassettes years ago, so it’s probably gathering dust in a Goodwill somewhere.
Fortunately, some kind soul did post this one Borneo Horns track on YouTube, so we can share some of Lenny’s funky magic here. Cooler than the SNL theme music, isn’t it? - weirdestbandintheworld.com/
Neglected Treasures - Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns
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| (Image by Zak Shelby-Szyszko / Zeal Images) |
A couple of months ago, I presented a recording at BYOV that was new to
me by a musician who certainly wasn’t. It was an LP by woodwind player
extraordinaire and Saturday Night Live bandleader Lenny Pickett called Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns (Carthage Records, 7001 (1987)).
Here’s the BYOV in question and the reaction from the crew: BYOV # 5.
I had been listening to the record regularly prior to the meeting and the record hasn’t strayed from the turntable since.
The record was intriguing to me for a number of reasons apart from being
a fun listen. Though Pickett has been recognized as a tremendous
soloist, bandleader and collaborator throughout his varied career, Borneo Horns has
stood alone as his only recording as a leader. The record was also a
testament to its time, one of much experimentation in instrumental
groupings, compositional techniques and genre mixing.
My curiosity was peaked enough that I thought I’d reach out to Mr.
Pickett and see if he would give me some background on the recording. He
was extremely generous and sent me an astounding amount of information
concerning his development as a musician and events that led up to and
through the recording. His extended quotes are italicized.
So here we go. Gonna try to shed a little light on a record that should be more well known.
Some background.
The Early Years
Lenny’s family moved to the Bay Area from New Mexico when he was two
years old. His father was stationed at White Sands Proving Ground and
worked on the Nike Zeus missile project for the Air Force. The family
moved to Berkeley, California after, while Lenny’s father finished his
graduate studies.
His first introduction to music was when he started playing clarinet at 9
years of age. Lenny had some group and private lessons in the fourth
grade but remained self-taught for the rest of his musical development,
except for a handful of lessons on classical clarinet repertoire and
flute.
With very rare exceptions, all of
my training was extremely informal. It is my belief that most music is
learned through self-study. I also believe that we all learn through
emulation, so no one is ever completely self-taught. In my case, formal
music education just wasn't available, and I worked with what I had.
Pickett’s introduction to the saxophone came at a very turbulent time in
his life. His parents split up a few years after they moved to
California. Before the 8th grade, Lenny had run away from his
father’s home and spent a summer in a juvenile detention center. He was
living in a foster home at the beginning of the school year and, while
his academic attention waned, his involvement in music became almost all
consuming.
A fortunate break came when a sympathetic band teacher, a Miss Magneson,
allowed Pickett to borrow and take home one of the school’s tenor
saxophones. He was drawn to the sax because of the loud sound that was
more suitable for the music that Lenny and his peers were drawn to,
namely jazz, rock, blues and R&B. His playing became a necessity
for him.
I practiced like crazy on my own.
Outside in the park, in parking garages, down by the bay, up in the
hills…. I got chased away and yelled at. My friends got curious about
what I was up to. I had quit going to school and socially disappeared
for the most part. Eventually my fellow young musicians gathered me up
and included me in their bands.
Much of Pickett’s musical education came through hanging with other
musicians and picking up useful tidbits from conversations, casual jams,
etc. His mother’s second husband was a little known jazz trumpeter
named Tommy Warren, whom Pickett was able to spend valuable time with
and from whom he learned a great deal about jazz and its history.
Another musical acquaintance was saxophonist Bert Wilson, who lived down
the street from Pickett.
Wilson’s story should be covered in more detail. He was certainly an
inspiring character as he had contracted polio as a young child,
discovered jazz at 10 by listening to Charlie Parker and pursued a
career in music that led him from the avant-garde scene of Los Angeles
to New York (where he recorded with Sonny Simmons and James Zitro for
ESP), then back to California.
I hung
out with Bert a lot. We had 2 or 3 "formal" lessons (nothing was ever
that formal with Bert), and then we spent time together. The few
saxophone lessons that I had with Bert were my only lessons on that
instrument. He was very accepting and welcoming to me, and though we
didn't have a rigorous lesson plan, I do consider him to be one of my
teachers.
 |
| Bert Wilson |
About Wilson’s “experimental” bent and its effect on his pupil:
I was pretty "experimental" when I
met Bert. (Ask him.) Having had no real saxophone lessons, I had
figured out a lot of things on my own that weren’t part of the normal
saxophone training. Bert was a perfect fit for me. I loved the freedom
that Bert espoused and I enjoyed his presence. Bert is a very
disciplined musician with a formidable technique. It’s through his
massive ability that he can play with the level of freedom that he does.
We still keep in touch.
Pickett joined the horn driven, funk group Tower of Power when he was 18 years old. The group toured two thirds of the year. They recorded their own albums and as a for hire horn section on the side, taking up much of the young Pickett’s time. Pickett gives credit to bandleader Emilio “Mimi” Castillo for helping him learn “the craft of recording through working on our album projects.”
The saxophonist’s compositional style sprouted from his experiments in
the recording studio. Pickett had learned the rudiments of notation
while studying the clarinet but really began composing in earnest in the
mid 1970s after purchasing a modular synthesizer and 8-track tape
recorder under the advisement of Dr. Patrick Gleeson (of Herbie
Hancock’s Mwandishi band fame). The use of these electronic tools
allowed Pickett to overdub his own woodwind lines with those of the
modular synth, which could provide a vast array of sounds and textures
for patient practitioners.
Pickett had been interested in the advancements of electric music from
musique concrète through the more modern digital synthesizer/programming
based compositions, his interest piqued by the use of electronics on
popular recordings of groups like the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, etc. His
study of tape music and overdubbing would become more and more important
in his own musical direction, especially with the inception of the
Borneo Horns.
 |
| Gleeson with Hancock |
My acoustic music is often a
translation of tape music ideas into the realm of acoustic instruments.
I’m interested in fluid interactions between all technologies. Pencils
and score paper are examples of older technologies that had a huge
impact on how western art music was created. Graphic ideas invaded what
was once an entirely aural medium. I have used the direct manipulation
of recorded sound and the manipulation of the graphic representation of
sound fairly equally.
Pickett grasped the complexities of arranging for multiple horns through
his early work with woodwind ensembles (like that of Tower of Power)
and his relationships with other musicians.
Writing for wind instruments was
never really a problem. My earliest playing experiences were in wind
ensembles. I am also, as you may have noted, an annoying interrogator of
my fellow musicians. I always try to explore the technique and
mechanics of the various instruments that I am around. Over the years, I
have accumulated a pretty good knowledge of how they all work. I have
read up on the acoustic properties of all the instruments in the
orchestra and I have studied their various notational oddities.
New York
After a decade on the road as a member of Tower of Power, Pickett moved
with his young family (including an infant son) to New York City in
1981. The move made it possible for him to settle his family in a place
where there was a tremendous amount of opportunities for a professional
musician.
Kathryn Rae, Pickett’s wife, had lived in New York during the 1970s,
performing as a member of Andrew DeGroat’s modern dance company. DeGroat
had been the choreographer for the first production of Phillip Glass’s
“Einstein on the Beach.” Rae used the contacts from this production
along with those stemming from her ties with one time roommate Garrett
List, trombonist and booker of famed performance center The Kitchen.
These connections proved helpful in Pickett’s professional musical
pursuits, including his landing a part in the Saturday Night Live band.
The Borneo Horns
 |
| Steve Elson |
During the early 1980s, Pickett was involved with David Bowie as an
arranger and member of the touring band alongside his old friend and
fellow saxophonist Steve Elson.
The two had known each other since junior high school and had a deep
musical rapport. Bowie was in the midst of recording and touring in
support of a handful of dance-oriented records, the most famous being
the Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame) produced Let’s Dance. On the 1983 “Serious Moonlight Tour,” Pickett met saxophonist Stan Harrison.
The triumvirate became the nucleus of The Borneo Horns. Pickett gives
credit to Rodgers and Bowie as catalysts to the group’s inception.
While on tour with Bowie, Pickett began writing music for this small
woodwind ensemble. It was convenient to have these two extremely
talented musicians at such close proximity. The group gelled quickly and
Elson, Harrison and Pickett began to tour as a unit throughout Europe
and North America.
 |
| Stan Harrison |
We also
functioned as a horn section on quite a few commercial pop records in
the '80s and the early ‘90s. We played a lot together and there is a
crazy level of empathy and telepathy between us. We still get together
from time to time. We are very good friends.
Added a short while later, the fourth member of the group was Leroy
Clouden who Pickett had originally met while touring with Tower of Power
but played with after his arrival in New York while sitting in at a jam
session at Kenny’s Castaways in Greenwich Village. Pickett: “I thought
of him immediately when I had the idea of adding a percussionist to the
saxophone trio. His time is awesome.”
The music stemming from the fringes in New York during that time period
was all over the map. Curious mixtures of classical, punk, jazz, dance,
blues, -- you name it -- were the call of the day. The compositions that
Pickett wrote for the Borneo Horns weren’t intended to play to the
vanguard of trendy eclecticism; they were natural extensions of his
musical personality.
 |
| The Borneo Horns |
I have played in many different
situations (circus, rock tours, Broadway, bar bands, street bands,
etc.), playing many different styles and genres of music. This is what
freelance musicians do. I enjoy a vast array of music and I have been
influenced by my own sonic experience of the world in the way that all
musicians and composers are.
I enjoy adapting to the various
musical circumstances that I find myself in, but when I am making up my
own new music, I just ask myself: “What would I like to hear now?”
Though there were some contemporaries working along similar lines during
this time, Pickett said that he hadn’t heard either the World Saxophone
Quartet or ROVA until well after his work with the Borneo Horns. He
wasn’t surprised that similar concepts were being explored at the time,
however.
The saxophone lives in a strange
world. It's neither fish nor fowl. Not brass yet not quite a woodwind.
The saxophone has never been fully embraced by classical music or by the
classical orchestra and, outside of the jazz world, the saxophone has a
poor reputation. This can sometimes seem confining. It is, however, an
amazing instrument with huge possibilities that have only been partially
explored. Those groups that you mention are fellow explorers.
The music that the group performed was likened by Downbeat magazine to “sound like collaborations between Bach, King Curtis, Steve Reich and the World Saxophone Quartet.”
The Recording
The Borneo Horns had been performing and touring for a few years before
they received the attention of record producer and folk musician Geoff Muldaur.
Muldaur had heard a live recording of the group on the Columbia
University radio station WKCR and had been excited by the possibility of
working with the group. Pickett was put in contact with Muldaur by his
good friend trumpeter Peter Ecklund.
Eager about the recording potential of the Boreno Horns, Muldaur pushed the idea to the legendary record producer Joe Boyd.
Geoff got very excited about the
project and pushed for it to happen, and got it off the ground before
anybody figured out what he was up to. He had a lot to do with the
choice of studios and casting the members of the larger ensemble. Geoff
and I are still very good friends.
The record would be released on Carthage Records,
a subsidiary of Boyd’s Hannibal label. The label was mainly a folk
label featuring releases from the Incredible String Band, Richard &
Linda Thompson and Fairport Convention. The Borneo Horns recording would
be the label’s lone outlier in the world of jazz/modern/whatever.
Pickett was already well acquainted with the co-producer, Hal Wilner.
Wilner had established himself as an extremely talented musical producer
for recordings, film and live performance. He was also involved in
music coordination (“needle drop duties”) at Saturday Night Live, where
he met Pickett who was then assisting the former musical director Howard
Shore.
Hal is a genius at knowing what
is needed from a producer. He always provides no less than what is
needed and no more. Perfect. I could not have had better help with my
project. He has amazing ears.
Though the resulting Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns
album was a huge experiment presenting a wide array of sounds and
compositional styles, the recording process itself was rather old
fashioned.
We recorded the “Borneo
Horns” album old-school-style direct to full-track stereo on a Studer
tape deck. There was no possibility of “punching-in” or overdubbing to
fix mistakes, but there are some edits here and there. This was the same
method that classical records and jazz projects used before multi-track
recording was available. Amazingly, the tempo was always rock-solid
between successive takes, and the editing was incredibly easy. We
recorded the project in this way to minimize tape hiss and avoid the
generation loss that happens when multi-track tape is mixed to 2-track.
Also, musicians perform differently when they know that they can’t
easily replace their mistakes, and the ensemble effort is greatly
improved. Paul Wickliffe engineered and Bob Ludwig mastered. It sounds
awesome.
The majority of the album was recorded at Skyline Studios in New York
City. The tape recordings used on “Solo for Saxophone and Tape” were
recorded at Grog Kill Studio in Mt. Tremper, New York by engineer Tom
Mark.
The album was released in 1987 on both LP and CD.
The Compositions
Many of the compositions on Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns were written for use in performances of David White’s Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) of New York City (now a part of New York Live Arts)
or for specific dance festivals/events. Pickett used inspiration from
innumerable sources for the creation of these soulful, infectious and
rhythmic excursions. He cited these sources as especially integral: “…
the Ongo music from Central Africa, the Rising Star Gospel Quartet, Sly
and the Family Stone, old blues 78’s…”
All of the “Dance Music for Borneo Horns” selections on the recording
were written for the DTW in January 1985. The series has continued to
grow to over 40 compositions for the Borneo Horns (#4, #6 and #13 were
recorded later on drummer Dennis Chambers album Planet Earth). The compositions that made the album were selected by producer Hal Wilner.
“Dance Music for Borneo Horns #1” was written in a sort of canon with
inversions and lot of call and response between the horns. The tune
featured Elson on baritone sax, Harrison on alto and Pickett on tenor.
Leroy Cloudon held everything in place on trap kit.
The song is a funky, mid-paced and infectious. The music sounds as if it
is a blend of New Orleans parade music and Bach chorale. A very
interesting exercise on horn ensemble writing with emphasis on rhythmic
movement.
The second track was a piece that most directly relates to Pickett’s
work with electronics. “Solo for Saxophone and Tape” was also written
for use by the DTW and captured the spirit of the 20th
Century electronic music that used tape editing as compositional
process. The principle sonic material was made up of overdubbed tapes
that Pickett recorded at Grog Kill. The tapes included a wide range of
woodwinds that were used as the harmonic bed to the track that Pickett
recorded on tenor separately at Skyline.
Here’s more info on how Pickett recorded the piece:
I made the piece originally to be
performed in a concert. As I remember it now, I created a recording
with 7 processed slap tongued clarinets on my 8-track tape recorder,
mixed it and transferred it to a ¼-inch half-track stereo tape, made a
tape loop, recorded the tape loop back onto 2 tracks of a new 8-track
tape, and then added another group of clarinets (double b-flat
contra-bass, bass, b-flat and e-flat). I remember that I liked the idea
that all of the sounds on the tape portion of the piece were made using
stopped cylindrical air columns, and consequently were largely missing
any even integer partials.
We remade the piece for the
album, and added the flutes when the project got bumped up to 24-track
tape. In that instance I used the primitive samplers that were available
at the time to remake the "tape loop" on 7 separate tracks. In the
spirit of this type of work, we recorded the solo live to 1-inch
full-track stereo while we rolled the "tape" (in this case the 24 track
master played back through the SSL console), so that the “solo” is first
generation audio on the full-track master.
The taped parts were written conventionally, scored on paper and played
straight through. The saxophone part was partially notated with a good
deal of improvisation added.
“Dance Music for Borneo Horns #2” has the same horn set up as “#1” but
includes Roger Squitero on bongos to accentuate Clousen’s traps. Pickett
had known Squitero since his days in Berkeley and began to perform with
him frequently after his move to New York City with the group Night
Flight. The additional percussion gives the tune a certain
Latin/Afro-Cuban flare. Harrison’s alto has a particularly moving
segment as the lead voice. The ensemble writing is extremely strong on
this trickily syncopated composition. This piece was written for
performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Maine Festival in
1986.
Half of the album was dedicated to pieces for a larger ensemble. Pickett
had always been good at meeting and inviting new musicians to take part
in projects. The additional horn players that were added were tuba
virtuoso Howard Johnson, trombonist/tuba player Dave Bargeron and the
great trumpet duo of Laurie Frink and Nelson Bogart.
 |
| Howard Johnson |
I met Dave Bargeron working in
the studios as a session musician, but I also remember subbing in the
Gil Evans Big Band while Dave was doing that. Dave subsequently played
with me on several other projects of mine. He is one of the most
versatile brass players that I’ve ever heard.
I think that I met both Laurie
Frink and Nelson Bogart playing in bands on Bleeker Street. Laurie has
an amazing range and has become a very important trumpet teacher. Nelson
doubles on guitar and is also a music attorney (!).
“Septet #2 for Seven Winds and Percussion” was used as part of the music
for Marta Renzi’s “Marriage Between Zones Three and Four” presented by
DTW. Pickett wrote the piece using his saxophones, a wind-controlled
synth and his 8-track recorder (he was limited to a septet because he
needed the last input for the click track). This piece was the second
section to a three-part piece.
There are internal sections in
each of the three movements in which several musical phrases of
differing lengths overlap each other and eventually resolve. This was a
fairly common approach among many composers who got their training in
classic electronic music studios. It mimics processes (sequencers, tape
loops, etc.) that are the normal tools of electronic composition. It’s
very easy to do with tape. It was a little bit tricky to learn with the
group.
What about that banjo?
That's
actually my banjo. I bought it so that I could get Ned to play it. Ned
is a great classical guitarist with many commissioned works created for
him. Consequently, he reads "fly shit". (Ned has worn many hats and has
in recent years written several important books that focus on the music
of the African diaspora.) I knew that he’d do justice to any
idiosyncratic writing I came up with. (Ned said some of his notes looked
like “upside down telephone poles".)
 |
| Ned Sublette |
“Dance Suite Section D” was a short piece that featured the large
ensemble in a short study that was a part of a larger piece. Listen for
that very low BBb tuba and some lovely writing for the horns.
“Dance Music for Borneo Horns #4” was written as a wild imitation of
circus music. The horns blow wildly before settling on the quick, jaunty
carousel ride melody. Altissimo screams were unleashed in a melee of
exuberance. The exceptionally wild lead up to the diminished ending
segment proved to be one of the most memorable moments on the album.
“Dance Suite Section 1” contained the most prominent use of banjo and an
almost pop like sensibility. The harmonic and rhythmic texture supplied
by the banjo was a great addition. This piece most clearly represented
the sound that Pickett would have been leaning toward with his
arrangements for art-rock group the Talking Heads. Very colorful and
esoteric.
The last of the featured series, “Dance Music for Borneo Horns #5” was
written specifically for Stephen Petronio’s dance “Number Three.” The
slinky, winding tune echoed R&B sentimentality with Pickett’s tenor
as the lead vocalist. This composition was used as a feature for all the
saxophonists in a solo setting. Elson’s resonant baritone solo and
Harrison’s strident alto really gave a wide dynamic variety to the
composition. The tempo and feel were a real departure from the majority
of pieces on the album, making the piece very poignant.
The final piece on the album “Landscape” brought back the larger
ensemble plus banjo. Brass swells and walking tuba bass lines provided a
marching band aesthetic.
The piece is built around the
melodic fragment that begins the section after the short introduction.
It is mostly a development of that short motif. (Eric Richards, a
composer friend of mine, has often critiqued my work over the years and
he was always encouraging me to develop my music by expanding upon
modest materials.)
Much of my music from the time of
the Borneo Horns album uses very short phrases that are treated in a
variety of ways. Sometimes I would change a rhythmic emphasis or invert a
melody or use imitation in another part to sustain a simple idea over a
longer period of time
I also often leave some aspect of
my compositions open for improvisation. If I remember correctly, the
drum parts were largely improvised. Both Roger and Leroy are great
improvisers.
Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns
has remained the only release under Pickett’s name. It was a collection
of styles and collaborators that showcased the saxophonist’s eccentric
mindset and huge ambition. A record that should be more well-known.
 |
| (Image by Zak Shelby-Szyszko / Zeal Images) |
The performance is usually the
key to any music’s success. I believe that music can reside in one’s
head, and it can be carefully and precisely written down, but until the
musicians play it, it doesn't really exist. Fortunately, I have been
surrounded by amazing players, and I have had the immense good fortune
to encounter generous creative musicians that have freely shared their
knowledge with me.
I believe that community is
everything. Certainly, without community, music is nothing. I think that
the value of community probably applies to everything that is worth
pursuing.
Long before he became ensconced as director and featured player of the Saturday Night Live Band, Lenny Pickett was a fixture of the downtown New York City avant-garde that centered around the performing space known as the Kitchen and that featured musicians like Peter Gordon, Ned Sublette, and Rhys Chatham. Before that, he was a member of the legendary Tower of Power horn section. Those two strangely different vectors are channeled into one oddly funky album here. The Borneo Horns, Pickett's woodwind trio with Steve Elson and Stan Harrison, form the central part of the pieces here, augmented by at least the trap drums of Leroy Clouden and often more. Pickett's compositions are decidedly danceable (most were, in fact, written as dance accompaniment) with soulful beats, though the absence of electronics keeps everything sounding light and airy. As in other reed ensembles like the World Saxophone Quartet, great emphasis is placed on rich section lines and organized riffs behind the soloist of the moment. The trio is arranged to sound thick enough on its own; when joined by an expanded horn section (including the great Howard Johnson on tuba), it sounds like a veritable big band swaggering and bopping down the alley. Despite this being his first album as a leader, Pickett chose to emphasize his writing abilities, not his ferocious technique as a player. Fans of his high-pitched, screaming style with SNL may be disappointed (though he does do some potential damage to any dogs in the neighborhood on the final track), but most listeners will find an accessible and enjoyable variety of grooving cuts here. - allmusic.com
Lenny Pickett (b. Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 10, 1954) is an American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, music director and teacher. He was a member of the Tower of Power Horns from 1972 until 1981, and since 1985 has been the tenor saxophone soloist with the Saturday Night Live band. He has served as the Saturday Night Live band's musical director since 1995. He is known particularly for his skill in the altissimo register (executed by using a combination of embouchure control, air stream control, and alternate fingerings), which can be heard during the opening credits of each episode of Saturday Night Live.
Pickett grew up in Berkeley, California. He has no formal musical training, did not attend high school beyond the ninth grade and did not attend college. Except for a brief period of study with the jazz saxophonist Bert Wilson (another player known for his facility with the altissimo register) after dropping out of high school in Berkeley, he is completely self-taught in the saxophone.[1]
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