Seamus is way ahead of them....

@@penchev73 While I agree that Seamus is my pick out of the 3, I don't think it's fair or even really accurate to say he's "way ahead of them." Once you get to that level it becomes more about preference than anything else. I'm sure all of them do very specific things better than the other because of the sound they decided to go for. At the end of the day, I love them all. But man... Seamus just has this bravado about him that I can't get over.

What are "John Coltrane's chromatics"? The phrase makes no sense to me(from a music theory analysis viewpoint), nor does the assertion that Blake is, according to you, "a great musician in the lower and middle registers who ocassionally hits the upper register" and who's playing is also "cliched" . So, about "Coltrane's chromatics": are you referring to his use of triad pairs, approach notes, melodic interpolation (musical quotes), etc....or are you referring to some specific aspect of Coltrane's improvisational language(and from what time frame in his career)? About the range of register(low, mid, high) of Blake's playing: he hits the higher register frequently in tune, with great feeling, and plays the whole range of the horn in this video. As far as his tone is concerned: this appears to be a phone recording, so the rich sonority of his sound is not fully captured. I wish you had said that YOU didn't like his tone, as opposed to issuing the proclamation that " his tone is an acquired taste ". The whole comment, by the way, has a rather pompous, dickish vibe. If someone reading your comment doesn't know much about the nuts and bolts of improvising, your sloppy "analysis" might sound vaguely authorative. To me, it just sounds like trolling. But, hey, if you play tenor sax, you could also post a video of yourself playing "Bye Bye Blackbird" on KZfaq that is clicheless, played with flawless control of all registers of the horn, and displays an artful demonstration of "Coltrane's chromatics"! Check out any of Seamus Blake's recordings(including his sideman recordings) to actually, accurately hear and understand his playing AND his musical influences, including the fact that he is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and singer...For a more(relatively) recent one, I recommend REEDS RAMBLE. There's a nice variety of compositions on it and the playing is excellent.