Johnny Ferreira: Saxophonist
Hey there, Johnny Ferreira, tenor saxophonist here. I confess, I'm a honker & a screamer and I've even walked on top of a few bars while playing my saxophone, it's fun, it's rock & roll. Believe me, you can't play your best licks while tryin' hard not to fall off a bar but you'll get more reaction from the audience and that's what it's all about. When I was a kid growing up in the 60's & 70's I liked a lot of the music being played on the radio everyday. In 1973 Pink Floyd put out the album Dark Side of the Moon and like so many others at the time I loved that record. Two of the songs, "US and Them" and "Money" had tenor sax on them, the player was Dick Parry. Anyway, that was the first time I can remember really taking notice of the sax sound, for me it was more exciting than the vocals. Of course I had to start digging a lot deeper than what radio was playing to hear more saxophone music cause it wasn't a big part of pop music. Oh yeah, there were a few bands; Average White Band, Tower of Power, Springsteen had Clemens screamin' occasionally and Supertramp had some tasty sax but this wasn't enough for me to sink my teeth into. I slowly found out about a few players and groups from the decades before that but it wasn't till much later when I worked with some American musicians, the Roomful of Blues, Greg Piccollo and Sax Gordon Beadle that I really got turned onto some groups and players of the 40's and 50's R&B and early rock & roll scene. I don't know if it was because I grew up in Canada or I just didn't know where to look but when I found out about Buddy Johnson...wow! I had to get everything he ever recorded. Same with Louis Prima, Louis Jordan, Joe and Jimmy Liggins, the list goes on. For me, this period had so much soul, innovation and a great party time feel to it... it became my favorite. So I've been swingin' through Canada, the US and Europe blowin' my brains out since the late 80's and just recently finished my 4th solo CD and called it "Rock & Roll Saxophonist" Ya, it took a long time but I finally figured it out...I'm a Rock
& Roll Saxophonist! As Buddy Johnson would say... JF
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Allow
me to introduce myself...