Here is another masterful solo by the great tenor saxophone player from Italy, Max Ionata. I absolutely love this short rendition from Youtube of Max soloing on the changes to “All the Things You Are”. This solo is so full of great jazz vocabulary perfectly crafted into a beautifully melodic solo over this classic jazz standard.
Max Ionata and his SYOS Max Ionata Signature Model Tenor Mouthpiece (check out the review)
If you are a saxophone player, and you don’t know about Max Ionata, you are in for a real treat. Max Ionata is a swingin’ tenor saxophone player and is one of my favorite jazz saxophone players. I have transcribed a number of his solos over the years that you can check out here: Max Ionata Transcriptions. Max has an amazing tenor saxophone sound but also an amazingly tasteful gift for jazz improvisation. In this age of whomever plays the fastest wins, Max Ionata seems to focus more on the elements of feel, swing, melody and the connection of his lines and vocabulary. He combines the best of the foundational language of jazz improvisation from the past masters with his own individual laid back feel while also mixing in some incredible cool and modern improvisational concepts.
Don’t get me wrong, Max Ionata does indeed lay it out and smoke at times but he does it in such a casual, laid back and relaxed manner, that many times you don’t realize how incredibly technical and difficult what he is playing is. Max Ionata is a tru modern day jazz pioneer and one of my favorite tenor sax players. You can also find out more about Max Ionata and his fabulous recordings at his website. Check it out!
I typically get a few emails a month asking me about what jazz etude books to get and most of the time my response is: “Transcribe or take a transcription like this one that you love, and master it! Listen to the recording over and over. Sing along with it by memory, hum it while you are walking and driving. Play it over and over trying to match every note, every articulation, every bend and nuance. There is no better etude to study than that!”
Hope you enjoy this melodic solo! Thanks to Max Ionata for his incredible tenor sax playing that always brings a smile to my face! If you appreciate the solo and Max Ionata’s playing please feel free to say so in the comments below……….. Thanks, Steve
Max Ionata Soloing on “All the Things You Are”
*If you would like to support me here at neffmusic.com, you can do so on the support page of my store by debit or credit card. Any support is appreciated and will go towards keeping this site running, saxophone reeds, mouthpiece patches, coffee, and towards justifying the many hours I spend on providing free transcriptions to the saxophone community! Thanks, Steve
Wonderful! Max, also, is a very kind person: in the past I sent him an email to ask for information and he kindly quickly replied to me!
Hey Max !
great pacing on your unacompanied solo.
I love the darker tone you get.
Although there was no chordal intrument
or even a bass line, I could tell where you were at
all times during your solo.
Beautiful !