Biography of Big Jay McNeely

Saxophone. A giant of the honking sax school, McNeely mixed flamboyant onstage antics with simplistic, volcanic sax style. His robust, huge tone, and vocal effects were an extension of the swing-era technique into the R&B/blues market. His penchants for rolling on the floor, playing on his back, or walking out into the audience were crowd-pleasing maneuvers commonplace on the R&B scene in the 40s and 50s, but they were incorporated so flawlessly into his act some thought he invented them. McNeely remains active on the California oldies and R&B circuit and cut some new recordings on his own label in the late 80s. ~ Ron Wynn