dragot wrote:I completely agree with you. In the purest mode having a real sax player would be great! In the reality mode, not financially prudent. Thanks for the midi suggestion and the obvious suggestion to play leads on a SECOND keyboard. He just didn't want to bring another keyboard to the gig. He plays rhythm guitar too! You'll laugh at this one. In our programming sessions, we came to the song "Brown Sugar". (I probably should tell you that this is a 60s 70s tribute band, so we try to come close the original tune) Well, Brown Sugar has the sax lead... I sprung to my feet and grabbed a Kazoo and played the lead. They all laughed but said, that would be a cool thing to do live. And it sounded pretty damn close to the original. I know that most band just substitute a guitar lead. But like I said, we like doing the original versions of the songs.
yes, yes and... yes!!
Do that, replace and reinvent rather than try to imitate 100% the original and you will open a world of creativity. I used to play in a R&B/Soul band some years ago, no horns section just the usual drum/bass/guitar/keys/voices and in most pieces which had horns sounds I replaced the with.. something else (a distorted Hammond, a Wah Clavinet, a Synth lead, having part played by the guitar... whatever worked fine to all the band) and so the song sounded better and also "original" (but in a different sense) while still keeping its key elements that make it recognizable.