I have to say, I feel very conflicted about this one. For one thing, I totally did not expect a very smooth saxophone to start up right when the song seemed to be winding down. And just when that solo seemed to be winding down, I really didn’t expect it to end up kicking it up a notch. Nick, the guy who emailed me about this solo, put it best: “It really is quite something as just when you think it’s over the sax finds another gear and rockets off into the distance.” All that said, there really wasn’t much to complain about in the solo.

If what you’re looking for is to be exposed to continuous sax solos (of love), than Michael Stanley is right: your other man probably can’t love you the way that Michael Stanley and his band can.

This song is about this woman who keeps going back to a “bad” guy. The bad guy is the saxophone (I think). If that’s true, I’m not sure why she didn’t have time to get away. I wasn’t even able to include all the sax parts in this clip….way too many.

A pretty terrible solo to listen to. Since the point of the song is that New York is terrible, I’m really not surprised. I’m sure it was really fun to play though. I’m giving the solo a D, but the song as a whole would get an A+ for the sax commentary.

The only problem with this solo is the very long sax buildup to the actual sax solo. Just when you think you’ve gotten the required saxophone out of the way, the actual solo begins. It’s not bad though, and not very long.

This song was basically the unfortunate blending of two unique motifs: 1) Competent 80′s new wave ballad 2) Overblown extended sax recurring nightmare

I do like the little different entrance warnings the player gives each time a solo begins, but I could have done without the increasingly repetitive sax toward the end.

Here’s what I think happened here: the sax player was late and walked in right when the song (which was totally unmemorable) was completely over. He then busted out his most intense solo, pulling all the other musicians back into the music for a mini-encore. The solo is pretty rad, but I have to dock it a bit for excessive vibrato and persisting into the fade.

Another solo I somehow never consciously noticed, though I’ve heard the song many times. Probably because it never ruined my day.

I can’t believe I never noticed this solo, having listened to this song hundreds of times. The weird thing about this one is that it is maybe not even a solo – it’s mostly in the background. It really is a perfect fit though. It would definitely have an A if it hadn’t annoyed me with the slow fade out.