Hi guys Pro saxophonist here Jamie Anderson,
from Get Your Sax Together. This week's video is gonna be the third in my series
of sax legends and we're gonna feature the one and only Junior Walker. I'm gonna
cut through all the noise, all the deluge of information and give you the summary
of his life in times, a key lick which sums up his style and his top fabulous
five tracks.
This is the third in my series of sax legends. I'm going to
feature all these people on my wall of sax behind me, all my heroes, all my
inspirations. This is the third one in the series. We featured Charlie Parker
and Mike Brecker and now we're going to focus in on Junior Walker. If you're a
beginner saxophonist or an intermediate saxophonist or a saxophonist of any
standard, the best thing you can do is listen to the world's greatest players,
inspire yourself and learn how they played and learn how you can learn from
their style. That's the best way to learn. If you want to learn how to transcribe
things you can go and follow the link up there to my series on transcriptions -
that way you'll always learn the phrasing and the sound of these players
and that's the most important thing. Go and do that for Junior Walker -
we're going to learn one of his best licks, all the tunes you need to know
and a bit about his life and times coming up, but just before we do that, if
you enjoy the channel please do subscribe, click the bell to be notified
when I upload new stuff, which is usually every Sunday,
come check out my Instagram feed, leave some comments in the comment section
down below, I love to hear from you guys, and of course there is a PDF that you
can go down into the description, click the link, and I've got the transcription
of his lick, all his 5 tunes listed, that's a wicked resource for alto and tenor, so
go there and print it off and follow along when I teach you the lick. And without
further ado, let's learn a little bit more about the life and times of the one
and only, the amazing, Junior Walker.
[Screaming Sax]
Born in 1931, American Motown tenor saxophonist and singer jr. Walker had
one of the most instantly identifiable sax styles of all time,
characterized by funky, percussive, growly mid-range phrases punctuated by
electrifyingly stratospheric screaming wails. Born Autry DeVault Mixon jr. jr.
Walker recorded no less than twenty three albums between 1964 and 1983,
taking inspiration from earlier jump jive players such as Louis Jourdan and
Earl Bostick but redefining what the saxophone was capable of. If all that
wasn't enough, he was also a superb singer, with a gravelly, soulful tone. After
several name and personnel changes in the early 60s the group jr. Walker and
the all-stars finally got their big break with the 1965 hit shotgun, released
on Berry Gordy's Motown label, out of Detroit. He continued to have many hits
on Motown throughout the second half of the 60s, including I'm a roadrunner, how
sweet it is to be loved by you, come see about me and what does it take to win
your love. He kept working all through the 1970s, eventually going solo in 1979,
although he reformed the all-stars again in the early 80s. Junior Walker died of
cancer in 1995 at the relatively young age of 64. In 2002 the song shotgun was
posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2007 Junior Walker
and the all-stars were voted into the Michigan rock and roll legends Hall of
Fame. Junior Walker was famous for the extraordinary control and power he had
in the upper register of the horn, extending the useful range of the sax by
at least an octave. He was a super funky and rhythmic player and favored
percussive barking phrases on his favorite scale, which was the major
pentatonic scale. If you want raw excitement, groove and soul be sure to
check out some junior walk as soon as you can!
Now you know a bit more about
the man behind the sax let's have a look a few short clips of junior Walker and
the all-stars in full flow...
I've broken up this lick into three segments. Now if you go into the
description, click the link you can get your free pdf with it written out for
Alto AND tenor. Print it off and follow along as we learn the lick. I've broken it
into three segments, so here is the first segment played slowly...
Now here's that first segment, that first phrase, played at full speed...
Good stuff! Let's move on to the second phrase and here it is played slowly...
Now here's that
second phrase played at full speed...
And finally, that third phrase, which has got
this real raspy, growly sound. Now if you want to learn exactly how to do that
method of growling, go to the card linked up there and check out the video on how
to growl on saxophone - I'll teach you exactly how to get that raspy sound on
the sax which is done by rolling your tongue, so go and check out at that video
and that'll teach you how to get this sound, and here's that third phrase played slowly...
Now the third phrase played at full speed...
Good stuff. Now we can put it all together,
and this is what it sounds like all joined up at full speed.
As usual it's
almost impossible to select only 5 tunes of your favorite players, however
I've had to do it, I've narrowed it down, and so these are junior Walker's
fabulous five tunes. Number one -"shotgun". Probably his biggest hit and everything
that you'd expect from junior Walker - wicked funky sax and wonderful vocals,
funky groove as well. Number two - "do the boomerang". Now the amazing thing about
this tune is, straight in the opening seconds he plays a double A, that's two octaves
above the A on the first ledger line, for tenor, so that is an incredible track.
Again, super funky playing, amazing tenor sound. Number three - "pucker up buttercup".
Well, it's got the best title for starters, and it is another awesome track,
with his funky screaming sax, great vocals, amazing band, absolutely uplifting
funky tune so go and check out "pucker up buttercup".
Number four - "walk in the night". This one is from his slightly later period and
I wanted something really soulful and groovy so go and check out "walk in
the night" that's an absolute classic Junior Walker tune. Finally number five,
something a bit more mellow, this tune is called "way back home". I put it at the end
of the list. Just put it on, chill out on the sofa and check out this track. This
is an awesome soulful mellow track by jr. Walker to
finish.
So that's it for this week, I really hope you enjoyed learning about
junior Walker - his playing, his tunes, his life. I hope it inspires you just as much
as it inspires me. Now if you're enjoying the channel once again please do
subscribe, click the bell to be notified of new videos, check out the Instagram,
leave me a comment, and of course don't forget go down into the description
click the link and you will get free PDF to accompany
this lesson, so I hope you enjoy that. Hope you're enjoying the channel and
I'll see you next week on Get Your Sax Together.
...few short clips of junior
Walker... hmm... try that again...
[failed attempts at Junior Walker growl high notes!]