In the two years since I dedicated myself nearly exclusively to the soprano saxophone I have found that there is a lack of transcriptions of significant (and insignificant!) soprano solos. I hope to rectify this in some small part with a series of soprano saxophone transcriptions, some of them will be famous others will be obscure, but all of them contribute to the cannon of the soprano in the jazz tradition in some way. At least to begin with most of these transcriptions will be from the period before 1960 when John Coltrane adopted and popularized the straight horn (Though I will also be transcribing some later players who pursued a more traditional style as well). I hope to bring into focus the early history of the soprano in much the same way as others have for the alto and tenor saxophone.
I’ve decided to start with a solo from a lesser known saxophonist, Boyd Atkins, who worked with Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Kid Ory in the 1920s and who wrote the swing era standard ‘Heebie Jeebies’. Much of his biography is unknown and I struggled to find information outside of his wikipedia page. From what I’ve gathered he performed on alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones, clarinet, and violin alongside both jazz musicians and blues artists like Elmore James, before passing away in 1965.
Atkins’ recorded ‘Chicago Breakdown’ on May 9th 1927 with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven alongside pianist Earl Hines, baritone saxophonist Stomp Evans (sometimes credited as ‘Stump’ Evans), trombonist Honoré Dutrey, banjoist Rip Bassett, and drummer Tubby Hall. He takes a 16 bar solo about halfway through the side directly after Armstrong and followed by Evans. This appears to be the only existing recording of Atkin’s with Armstrong though he holds up next to the great trumpeter with a confident delivery and daring angular leaps across the register of the soprano.
A quick note on transcription and notation.
Five-line staff notation is great for a lot of things, it is an excellent tool for transmitting harmonic and rhythmic information to performers. There is however a great deal of information that is (near) impossible to convey in a functional and efficient manner. For these details there is no substitute for transcribing the original recordings. My personal approach to notating jazz solos involves rendering the clearest possible rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic information without laboriously notation phrase markings, articulations, smears, and microscopic timings. These are all worthwhile elements to notate but for my purposes these transcriptions are purely references, slightly vague references, to the recorded material not clinically accurate recreations.
With that being said, here is my transcription of Atkin’s chorus on Chicago Breakdown:
Atkin’s playing shows clear influence from Armstrong as well as the angular verticality of tenor pioneer Coleman Hawkins, he plays with a straight and piercing tone that is very dissimilar to the first pioneer of the soprano saxophone Sidney Bechet. His articulation at times is so aggressive it approaches (and sometimes crosses into) slap tonguing and shares an incisive quality with Steve Lacy’s early 1960s sound. As with many players of this era Atkins’ phrases often begin on up beats (‘ands’) and end on downbeats, particularly beats one and three, this gives his playing a sense of forward momentum but also a strong groove that is tied deeply to the rhythm sections half time accompaniment.
This solo stands as a excellent, albeit rare, example of a soprano stylist working in the 20’s that had a sound that was his own and stood in stark contrast to Bechet’s stylistic domination of the soprano sax.