I used to play the alto saxophone when I was a kid.  Was I any good?  I used to think so, but looking back, maybe not so much.

I can admit that.

I am sitting here, working on my novel and Glenn Frey’s “You Belong To The City” comes on and I am immediately transported to a time when I couldn’t see my life as anything other than a professional saxophone player.

(Really Grimes?  Really?)  Okay, maybe I saw other things in my life, but I just wanted to be good at it.  lol

There exists, somewhere in the dark recesses of my parents’ basement, a picture of me with my head bowed, my hair in braids, hiding in my face with a saxophone strung around my neck.  It is both the most obnoxious picture I have ever seen, as well as the coolest picture I have ever taken.

I should find thing…..

When my brother was in Grade 7 he brought home the alto sax for music class and I fell in love with the smooth jazz (adjacent) sounds that came it.

Was he any good?  Well, let’s be honest, you’re 13 in grade 7 and musical geniuses we were not – but we tried.  He was committed.  He loved that thing and even later, when he had stopped playing, he bought Candy Dulfer’s “Saxuality” on CD and would play it night and day.

That album inspired me to want to be as good as she was.  Do yourself a favour and give that album a listen.  You just might find yourself at your local music store asking about lessons.

The sax solos in Quarterflash’s “Harden My Heart”,  Wham’s “Careless Whisper”, Sade’s “Smooth Operator” and Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender” are some of my favourite of all time.  I even made a corrugated paper saxophone for an elementary school performance of “Never Surrender” for a school talent show.

To this day I get goosebumps when I hear the sweet velvet tones of a saxophone.  It is passion and desire, yearning and power all wrapped up in brass.