FFWD Weekly
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| MUSIC Lenny Pickett and the Calgary Big Band He's the most consistent performer of the Saturday Night Live crew, and he can't even act. For 13 years the meaty sound of Lenny Pickett's sax has welcomed Saturday post-partygoers and nighthawks to the television set, and for 13 years his final, ear-piercing squeal has tucked us all into bed. Often, it's worth sitting through the excruciatingly unfunny last sketches just to hear how high he'll take his tenor. "That's a thing I developed myself," he says from his New York home. "I could tell early on that the sax had the ability to go really high, and I just started to experiment with it and I found those right notes." Lenny Pickett learned a lot early on. At 18 years old, he joined the best horn section in the land, Tower of Power, going on tour with hundreds of artists from David Bowie and John Lee Hooker to Elton John and Grand Central Station. In fact, the last time Pickett - who brings his horn to the Blackfoot Inn this Monday - played in Calgary was 1981. The bill: Ted Nugent and Heart. These days, he doesn't let anyone else choose the music he plays. Three years ago, Pickett succeeded guitarist G.E. Smith as SNL music director, allowing him to call more shots than just the horn's. And although the band rehearses for only two hours before each show, it was the added responsibility that turned him on. "When I took over for G.E., I spent a good portion of the year just auditioning new guitar players. I wanted to make everything right. And being a sax player, I also tried to find a better intersection between the horns and the rhythm section, so now there's more '70s soul on the show - I write about two songs each week, too. That's something that G.E. never liked to do." During SNL'S off-season (I'm talking calendar-wise, not comedy-wise), Pickett writes for film and stage, and tours new material. Sax players and R&B lovers flock to his shows to hear the sound he's mastered - a controlled chaos of squeals and a growly, soulful attack that nods to old wailers like Jr. Walker and King Curtis. It's a playful style that many of today's slick jazz players have overlooked. Either that, or they just don't blow as hard and mean as they used to. "I've never let go of all that R&B stuff. When I was a teenager, it was an attraction that I knew the solo from (Jr. Walker's) 'Shotgun,'" he laughs. "Most of those players were so honest. It's like gospel singers - it all has to come from an experience. Not a life experience, but a musical experience. It has to feel like its part of you. "That's what I don't hear from a lot of players doing R&B today. They just don't like it enough! It's like they're doing it as a gag or something. But for me that's it. It's the real deal." |
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