About
Rickey Woodard delivers one chorus of tenor saxophone on Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You," a performance of deep emotional conviction on his 1992 live album The Tokyo Express. At a slow 56 BPM over the 32-bar ABAB' form in E-flat, his big, lush tone and vocal-like phrasing reveal the influence of ballad masters like Ben Webster and Don Byas, each phrase shaped with the rubato sensitivity that separates great ballad players from merely competent ones. As the sole soloist on this track, Woodard's single chorus demonstrates that he is not merely a hard-swinging tenor man but a complete musician capable of profound emotional expression, his playing preserving the song's tenderness while adding harmonic sophistication.
Rickey Woodard was 41 to 42 years old at the time.
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