{"id":46017,"date":"2017-05-25T10:01:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=46017"},"modified":"2024-06-24T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T17:32:09","slug":"corky-corcoran-tenor-sax-ballad-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2017\/corky-corcoran-tenor-sax-ballad-master\/","title":{"rendered":"Corky Corcoran: Tenor Sax Ballad Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I noticed a vintage photo on eBay<\/a> of tenor saxophonist Corky Corcoran. Now I must admit, this was a name that I hadn’t heard in years. I think the last time was likely in the 80s, when one of my private instructors mentioned him as one of the tenor players I should be listening to.<\/p>\n

What’s interesting about this picture, is that it is an autographed photo of Corky Corcoran promoting Chesterfield Cigarettes. The seller dates this photo to the 1940s, which if accurate, would be a foreshadowing of sorts, of Corky’s demise\u2014just a short three decades later.<\/p>\n

\"Corky<\/a>
Source: mixa11 on eBay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Corky Corcoran was one of those astounding tenor saxophone players who got his start during the big band era. He was discovered<\/em> as it were, when he was only 16 years old, while playing at a jam in his hometown of Tacoma, WA. In the early 1940s Corcoran was already working in big bands.<\/p>\n

When he was 17, band leader and trumpet player Harry James, recruited Corky Corcoran for his band, and featured his tenor sound not only on stage, but in radio and movie appearances as well. James would turn out to be the greatest influence in Corcoran’s musical career.<\/p>\n

If the introduction to the following 1957 recording from Vienna is to be believed, James adopted Corky because at 17, he was too young to play in big bands. According to the announcer, for a period of four years, Corky Corcoran was sort of Mr. Harry James Jr.<\/p>\n