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Jason Yarde: discovering the saxophone

Saxophone

When Jason went to secondary school, the opportunity to play the sax opened up

JASON HAD PLENTY of interests other than music as a teenager – he was good at athletics and photography too, and for a long time he wasn’t sure which was most important to him. He also remembers that, despite playing his mother’s Duke Ellington jazz tapes over and over, he was still ‘a child of the 70s and 80s’ – putting on his tracksuit and going to break-dancing sessions just like his friends.

Open QuoteIt seemed like he played any instrument ... basically he would just blow down it and make this great soundClose Quote

Jason Yarde

But when Jason went to secondary school, the opportunity to play the sax opened up. Though the clarinet-shaped soprano sax was his first love – from the time he had seen that old Sidney Bechet picture as a young child – the school music department didn’t have one. It did have three alto saxes, however, and an inspired sax teacher as well ...

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