Woodwinds - saxophones, clarinet, flutes......

Saxophone is an instrument that became popular as a prominent instrument in the music known as Jazz. Here, one of the Jazz legends of the 1950's takes an improvised solo; in other words, he is making it up as he goes. 

There are few better alto sax players than Campbell Ryga anywhere in the world and we are lucky that he lives right here in the Salish neighbourhood. He is featured on a beautiful solo at the 3:30 mark of the tune. This is an excerpt from a CBC show called the Cantata for the King featuring all tunes by Elvis Presley performed by Vancouver's Hard rubber Orchestra. This is the wonderful Dee Daniels on vocals and somewhere in there you might recognize a trumpet player. 

Often instruments like to gather in small "chamber" settings in groupings of "like" instruments (string quartets, brass Quintets etc) Here is an example of a sax quartet, the Marici Saxes playing a piece by the great Argentinian Tango composer, Astor Piazzolla

Anat Cohen on clarinet. Brilliant technique and musicality. In this on a Brazilian piece

Eddie Daniels on the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Absolutely unbelievable clarinet player

Paganini was known for composing difficult pieces. Here is Caprice 24 played with apparent ease by Jasmine Choi

An excellent example of solo flute playing. Amazing sound , control and phrasing on a piece by one of the most important composers in music History, JS Bach.