The King of the Sax – Cecil "Big Jay" McNeely
Tenor saxophonist Cecil “Big Jay” McNeely has been “the king of the honkers” for over 60 years, and he’s still going strong. Born in Watts, California, on April 29, 1927, he formed his own band with jazz legends Sonny Criss (alto sax) and Hampton Hawes (piano) while still in high school. But in late 1948, when he was asked to record for Savoy Records, he abandoned jazz for something more raucous and struck paydirt when his second release, a honked-up instrumental called “Deacon’s Hop,” went to 1 on the national R&B charts in February 1949.
For the next several years, Big Jay, according to The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, “was famed for his playing-on-his-back acrobatics and his raw, hard-swinging playing.” During his act he’d leave the stage, walk across the top of the bar, and sometimes walk out the door of the club, often with a line of people following him. Once, in San Diego, during one such “walk,” he was arrested on the street for disturbing the peace; inside the club, his band kept playing until someone could rush down to the police station, post Big Jay’s bail, and bring him back to finish his song. Thanks to his flamboyant playing, called “honking,” McNeely remained popular through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, recording for the Exclusive, Aladdin, Imperial, Federal, Vee-Jay, and Swingin’ labels.
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