Lenny Pickett on When He First Joined Saturday Night Live | The Vibe Chamber

how did you land that job originally because you move in 81 you come to new york and you get picked up by snl in what 85. how does that how do you go from doing jingles and engineering to that um well i i i i did it um i did a lot of different things and i i sort of made some mark i took a tour in 83 with david bowie did the serious moonlight tour so and was that borneo horns that that was the three saxophone section yeah that i spoke about before um uh steve elsin and stan harrison and i were the horn section for that that tour um and and when i came back there was i i i had made some connections and i was working more and i was doing a fair amount of recording work um so my name was sort of in the mix of things you know it was um and also um oh i'd done this gig with ge smith i was on a hall and oates live album um live video i was a eddie kendricks and david ruffin from the temptations um joined hollow notes for some songs and they performed at the apollo theater and he did mostly motown music um and they needed a horn section they called me i booked the horn players did the recording played a solo on one of the songs uh one of the song i think i got it would be one of the singles on the record they uh uh daryl and john called me back to do some more gigs and he did another recording with them and ge smith was the guitar player in the band now ge had been married to gilda radner at one point um and i think he'd worked on a show that she worked on and and he and lauren were acquaintances and um and he got asked to be the bandleader for the show and howard shore had come back and howard used to be in this band called lighthouse which was like a canadian horn band you know and we were sort of out at the same time as them with tower of power and he was familiar with tower power and somewhat familiar with me and and um uh and ge recommended me to do the show and howard agreed and that was that um uh i i showed up at an audition but i think i sort of already had the gig before that happened i my my sound was right for the show they've always had this sort of junior walker-esque uh saxophone lead at the front and then the back of the show and um and i that was the style i played in so it was sort of a natural before right did they give you a chance to come in and at least sub for a couple shows or watch before you had to come in no just did the show i i played with um that that spin-off band from duran duran with robert palmer uh what they called uh the power station and i've done the show once with them as as guest music so i'd been there um no we just did it um it was terrifying i shook the whole show the first couple of shows you know really well you're playing for eight million people you know it's like and it's not there's no there's no can i punch that in can i do that over again there's none of that and it's and it's it's an unforgiving thing you know if you if you squeak or or or or play a wrong note it's like evident to the entire world and i had a very very um audible role and i couldn't sort of conceal myself inside the horn section i was playing the saxophone solo so you ever go back and watch the replays of those first shows that's interesting you ask um you know we're doing the show in a very interesting way these days um and i i've been staying home as much as possible because there's you don't want any more people in the studio than have to be there and one of the things they provided us with is a way of watching the rehearsals but in addition to that there's a a raft of old shows up on the same application and i went back and looked at some things just because curious i hadn't seen them since i did them a lot of times and uh i went back and looked at some old shows it's very very very strange thing to do um to see yourself 36 years ago does it make you miserable to listen to yourself back then are you like i did pretty good uh it doesn't bother me that much um um i i feel like i do it better now but i didn't i i wasn't um i i was my intent was right my my intention was the correct one you know um um i i wasn't very far off base um and it was it was again it was a very natural thing for me to do as a style of playing that i've been doing a lot of and and focused on and was very comfortable with um you know i i love rhythm and blue saxophone playing i i find it um exhilarating to me you know it's an area of jazz that is much overlooked and um and uh not mined and and to the extent that it could be it's a really it's a it's a beautiful art form [Music] you

Channel: The Vibe Chamber

Views: 2,730

Keywords: Scottie Madonia, lenny pickett snl interview, snl, lenny pickett interview, snl interview, lenny pickett sax, saturday night live

Id: ONqzmj74q08

Length: 5min 53sec (353 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021