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<\/a><\/p>\nPete Christlieb on the Tonight Show<\/strong><\/p>\n I found out that that sax players name was Pete Christlieb.\u00a0 Coincidently enough, five years later during my first year at Ithaca College, the guest artist with the jazz band was……. you guessed it,\u00a0 Pete Christlieb!!!\u00a0 I was ecstatic!<\/p>\n Again, I wish I could tell you details about that Ithaca jazz band concert.\u00a0 What tunes we played and what solos I took as a freshmen college student, but alas, I don’t remember any of that stuff.\u00a0 What I remember is again being floored by Pete Christlieb’s playing.\u00a0 I remember specifically thinking that Pete Christlieb had the biggest, “bluesiest”,\u00a0 most expressive tenor saxophone sound I had ever heard in my life.\u00a0 He played multiple tunes that night with all sorts of chord changes and every single solo somehow seemed to sound like a blues solo to me.\u00a0 Mr. Christlieb would be rippin’ through the changes and then it seemed like during every solo he would smoothly transition to this bluesy wailin’ sax solo.\u00a0 I remember being amazed by this!\u00a0 “How is he sounding so bluesy and soulful over all these hard chord changes??” I asked myself.<\/p>\n When I first heard the tune I transcribed for you today, it brought me right back to those two experiences with Pete Christlieb from my past.\u00a0 The tune is “Limehouse Blues” from the Pete Christlieb CD “Pete Christlieb with the Lori Mechem Quartet Live at the Jazz Cave”.<\/p>\n This Limehouse Blues is not your typical barnburner that you typically hear when this tune is played.\u00a0 \u00a0This is a slow, bluesy, gutsy tenor sax swingin’ version that I immediately fell in love with.\u00a0 I don’t think I will ever play Limehouse Blues fast again after hearing this version.\u00a0 That is how much I love it!<\/p>\n Pete Christlieb just tears this tune up!\u00a0 He “bluesifies” the tar out of this solo. Scooped notes galore!\u00a0 \u00a0So many in fact, that at times I had trouble figuring out what note he was actually playing.\u00a0 At times, it almost seemed like Mr. Christlieb’s tenor sax had a slide on it.\u00a0 His tone is thick, full, husky and robust.\u00a0 The kind of tone that would make me walk into a blues bar if I was walking by and heard it!<\/p>\n