Dec 012008
One of my favorite elements of the classic Motown sound has always been the baritone saxophone. The man responsible for those distinct, swinging lines, Mike Terry, has died.
It was in 1963, with Heatwave and You Lost the Sweetest Boy, that the sound of Terry’s baritone started bursting out of young America’s transistor radios. Restricted by the production team of Lamont Dozier and Eddie and Brian Holland to short interludes before the final chorus, usually no more than eight bars long, he made the most of his opportunity with a heated approach that was short on melodic invention but long on rhythmic drive.
Incidentally, the Guardian obit says he died Oct. 30, which I assume is a typo and should read “November 30.”
It’s not a typo. Do a google search on
Mike Terry Motown saxophone
and you will find some fan sites that had the news Oct. 31 and early November.
Ah cool. Thanks for that, Rick. I had looked on Google’s news page, but all they had was the Guardian’s obit on another site.
I’ve been thinking about the role of sax in Motown records: I usually don’t pay much attention to the brief solos, but I do like when the sax is playing a low, driving riff – the kind of part in early ’60s songs that would be replaced by fuzz guitar in the garage era and beyond.