One of my all-time favorite musicians is the great soul saxophonist King Curtis from Fort Worth, TX. In fact, the reason I decided I wanted to play the tenor saxophone was because of one of his records. I thought I was pretty well schooled when it came to King Curtis history, but apparently there was a gaping hole I wasn't aware of. One of my friends sent me a link to this video of Curtis playing at Shea Stadium. It was King Curtis' band that opened up for The Beatles that night - I had no idea.

The sound quality on that video isn't so great, but here is another live performance where King Curtis plays with bluesman Champion Jack Dupree so that you can get an idea of just how incredible his sound was. No one hit the high register like Curtis, just ask Lenny Pickett.