To all my SZ buddies - Remember Dorothy (of Ozland) and the calamity she faced? This song helped her. Hoping those of you who give a listen will gain some positive energy from my recording of "Over the Rainbow". This one is from the archive of 2013... Also, this recording is from one of my joyous (and rare) "reunions" with my trusty old Selmer Mark VI Alto Sax! Got that horn after deciding to study Music at Frostburg State University... 1970 - for $425! Money well spent. GodSpeed and God Bless everyone here on SZ and keep the great music coming!

PS - I posted on here a while back that I wrote to PG Music and asked if they would please get Beegie Adair to sit down and record some "Real Tracks" of her comping style. Of course that hasn't happened, but the backing track on this tune is Beegie playing (done for a vocalist). Hence, you can see why I would love to be able to have Beegie Adair as a resource in my BIAB toolkit!

Randy super song so well done and heartfelt
the Selmer Mark VI sounds terrific....

Randy, that is beautiful ... Had the family listen to it at breakfast ... must be nice to have Beegie as your back-up band ... Keep the music coming ...
But why the "rare reunion" with the Mark VI? I would think you would want to play it every day ...

I may have mentioned that the sax player from our band has a Mark VI Alto ... He had the closest sound to Paul Desmond I ever heard ... as he has gotten older, I think his sound has become more 'raw' ... In his will he states that the horn is never to be sold, but must remain in the family ... knowing his family, they would never sell it anyway ...
I think the last offer he got for it was $10,000 ...

On another note, it is funny that I was thinking of posting a much different version of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" ... then Gary posted 'World'. so I held off, and now here is 'Rainbow' ...
I'll let people enjoy yours for a while ...

Fantastic. Great improv. And yes, that piano accomp is world class, up there with Billy Childs.

chas

I heard this when you first recorded it and loved every note - Over The Rainbow is my FAVORITE song, and I fell in love with Dorothy when I was just a little kid and saw The Wizard Of Oz for the first time.

Gary

Thanks all for the kind words and for checking out the song! Yes, the house is only as good as its foundation, and that backing track was meant to help that melody ring for sure. Makes it always a pleasure to perform this song!

Tony - yep, the Mark VI's are sought after. The older Selmer horns from Paris are said to have character. I heard that Dave Sanborn is always on the "hunt". I have a '68 model with the original (weathered now) finish. I got a phone call 13 years ago and was offered $5000 unseen for the alto. Definitely worth a lot more now days. Most of the time my vintage horns (also have a King Super 20 Silver Tenor and Mark VI Soprano) are asleep in the safe. For beach gigs and even the restaurant jobs, I play Taiwan-made copies of the Selmers and they play very well with no risk. I definitely have not played alto enough - when I was working a lot of beach gigs (since 2012 or so) I started playing Tenor all the time since my practicing was usually always for preparing wedding songs on the Tenor. Will be changing that and playing more Alto and Soprano as I go forward (making a new CD).

Thanks again for the listens and the kind words! It is a great and inspirational song for sure.

Randy,

There's plenty of great things already written, I say plus 1 to all those comments. I love Beegie Adair's piano work. You are a man with many talents! A little known fact is you are the guy who egged me on to study to get my ham radio operators General Class license when I first retired.

Thanks Brother Steve (W1DAM)! I also wrote to Beegie's staff and asked "would you consider marketing some backing tracks?". They said "not at this time". Fortunately, there are a few tracks floating around from a vocalist's album. Still think it would be an amazing addition to the "Real Tracks" series of BIAB. They have Kenny Baron already...now to complete the set.... just sayin'.

Thanks for the listen and stay safe over there in Adult Disney World!

Hi Randy,
beautiful version of a wonderful song.

I always got the impression it was my neighbours favourite recording , when he was with Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. They had quite a few hits, but I think this song was special. I was helping him do some backups of his cd’s and when Somewhere over the Rainbow popped up, I could see a tear in his eyes. Suppose he was thinking back on a friend he had lost.

Amazing how this song is full of of hope and sadness.

Hi Randy,

Although I am no judge of saxes this sounded truly wonderful to my ears and the piano accompaniment made it extra special!
thanks for sharing,

regards,
John