Smooth jazz ballad, especially when played with saxophone, has long been associated with the image of a couple having sex. Perhaps that's because a lot of movies have employed this cliche. And there is a whole series of recordings that uses this as the theme, at least for the cover, where there are always a man and a woman in intimate positions. It is not actually all the typical "movie sex themed" music. For example, I just listened to his cover of Pink Floyd's classic, "Us and Them", from "Sensuous Sax: The Kiss." This version could still be considered "sexy" but in a different way.
By the way, it was interesting how I came across this series: I was writing about smooth jazz and the established musicians like Marion Meadows. When I checked out his discography on Rhapsody, I found a "Sensuous Sax: Sensation", which listed him, Kenny Geoffrey and Dan Pickering on the cover as the featured musicians. However, this album cannot be found on his discography elsewhere. In fact, most other albums in the series are under the name of one "Le Valedon" which is a very mysterious artist. I just can't find any bio of this person. Some of those albums listed "Compose" as the label. And I tracked it down to "Peter Pan Music" which seemed to be the parent company. That's all info I have on this series.
So, why am I so interested? I want to play like Le Valedon! Seriously, his playing is no doubt very crowd-pleasing, especially to the female audience I suppose, with all these familiar melodies, in a quite romantic mood. In the last 8 years jazz was my main focus and I played a set of the most popular jazz standards at our high school reunion. The question I got the most was: can you play something people know? (And when does your song end.)
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