When you get 6 bars to impress the president of the USA, but it's freezing 

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Amazing that all these guys got together and improv'd a 90's sitcom opening theme for two minutes and forty-eight seconds straight.

You know your bandmates are legendary when you’re more nervous to preform in front of them than the actual PRESIDENT and millions of Americans. What a lineup

Now I'm no musician... but having a small mirror attached to your instrument so you can see how stank you look while performing is absolute boss

Man props to Gerry Mulligan for pumping the breaks on the finger seizure train for a second. Also gotta love the sound of a good bari.

Brecker comin in like the final boss in the video game

Gerry Mulligan's intro comes as a breath of fresh air after 7 times 6 bars of intense blues saxophone

I knew somebody would figure out my scam eventually! I had no business being there but they asked & how could I say no & oh my God I had the best weekend of my life hanging out with those wonderful human beings. Michael Brecker became a dear friend of mine, so did Dave Koz, particularly because Dave and I were the wide-eyed kids in that crowd. Those bus rides back-and-forth over the Potomac between rehearsals and our hotel were extraordinarily fun and funny. C or C sharp, who knows? I was terrified! I’m a singer who owns a saxophone, dammit! Thanks for giving this wonderful clip new life. I will never forget it as long as I live. By the way, Harry Bellafonte and Sidney Poitier shared our dressing room with us, so we spent the whole weekend hanging with those amazing gentlemen as well. One other note: at a certain point Gerry Mulligan hollered hey Ray, it’s Gerry Mulligan! We looked over and there was Ray Charles walking by the entrance of our dressing room and Ray turned and waved and said hey Gerry and kept on walking. There were moments like that all weekend long.

Props to the bass player holding the line through all those solos

Tom scott went from making the weirdest possible sounds on a soprano to talking about why he is standing in a park in the middle of Birmingham

I was a military band trombonist. One day we were out on parade for a state visit in sub freezing temperatures and had to stand for an hour for inspection before marching off. When we eventually did, just a horrible noise came out the entire brass. The valves and slides had seized solid.

Mulligan's solo is my favorite, he made creative use of space in his solo unlike most of the other players, and his quote of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was fitting for the occasion too lol

Laughed at "Smooth jazz's son", laughed harder at "Smooth jazz's perfect son in law"

Let’s not forget that Clinton is an amateur jazz saxophonist. Jamey Aebersold once opened his three day seminar in London with a slide of his transcription of a blues solo in F the president had played for the cameras, with a band, which he proceeded to analyse. His verdict was: “as you can say everything is quite proper and correct. More the pity the band was playing in Bb”. It got laughter.

I love you can tell just how amazing this is for the president. You just know this has been his biggest dream since a kid, and having all of them there to play only for him gives him a look that is as giddy as a school boy 😂

It's great that everyone of them kills it with a great solo, but none tried to show off and act as if they're better than the others. In the end, it all felt smooth and the solos had a similar vibe and great transitions.

I love that Kenny G doesn’t have a music sheet. He really strikes me as a “fuck it we ball” kinda guy and just send sit home

"Having an excellent hairdresser" 😂😂 Excellent commentary!!!! and a great idea!

In case you don't know, the reason they all put on the sunglasses is a little dig at Clinton who played "Heartbreak Hotel" on the Arsensio Hall Show with sunglasses during his election campaign. Michael Brecker has the hippest of them all, after blasting his solo through the White House lawn he quickly flips those shades. Curtis Stigers appears to have forgotten them, so a quick ninja (as somebody described it excellent in the comments here) gave it to him.

Brecker’s solo was by far the most harmonically interesting out of all of them

RIP David Sanborn. Absolute legend

WOWOWOWOWOWOW... somehow I missed this, but it makes total sense that all these sax greats would be at the inauguation of Bill Clinton. Gerry Mulligan's decision to include that patriotic quote shows he cares about his audience and the occasion, too. Heartbreaking... shave and a haircut, too!

I watched that live on TV. I loved it! I wouldn’t begrudge anyone pitches because it was freezing cold that day!

That was the most 90s thing I’ve ever heard. There was even a laugh track playing from the spirit world.

you guys have NO idea how cold it was that day. it's amazing any of us were even able to get ANY notes out! thank you guys for putting this together...amazing to relive it so many years later. I am still in awe of that line up--I was just a young pup starting out, amidst a line of true sax legends...they were all so nice, especially Brecker and Grover. true gentlemen.

The “warming up” photo: Brecker and Gorelick in the same tent. I’m surprised this mix of positive and negative saxophony in such close proximity didn’t annihilate the entire universe.

Gerry's response after the... previous fast fingers display, is just what was needed at the moment, GLORIOUS!

that bassist absolutely jamming the hell out

Kenny’s metallic pitch is always so distinct

Mulligan's battle hymn of the rebulic quote. *chefs kiss*

They didn't have to flex THIS hard! 😂 I like how each one had their flavor in the solo 🔥🎷

Greatly grateful for the tidbits of background info on these players, enriches my appreciation for their performances.

So for anyone who doesn't know, there is a famous lick in hip hop first featured in "They Reminisce Over You". Tom Scott was the original saxophonist who played that lick. It was on an amazing album called Tom Scott and The California Dreamers "The Honey Suckle Breeze".

Did you know about this giant White House saxophone legends jam? I have to say, I knew all of them except for Curtis Stigers, which I had to Google only to find out he is a truely amazing singer! What a voice. Some little caviats... -Curtis stigers solo has a few strange notes, I know. It seems like with his octave C it is pitched quite high, actually sounding more like a C#. In the footage, due to the great camera angle, you can actually see him finger C natural, but I double checked and the pitch is really more of C#. Playing outside in Januari isn't a much fun thing to do as every saxophonist can attest to, but it semes his C natural goes a couple of times high in pitch. -Besides Curtis Stigers solo, the one by Kenny G was most difficult to get down. Also generally the audio is kinda poor, and the lines weren't very clear, as well as some pitches. That might be on my part, I'm sorry if that one isn't always nailing it. -The extra voice you hear playing through Gerald Albrights solo is Kirk Whalum coming in one round too quickly. But before you'd judge, ask yourself the question: did you ever come in to early or messed up someone else's solo yourself? Yeah I guessed, it happens to all of us at some point if you've played long enough :) -My take away is that while I do appreciate everybody in this video, the sounds I could pick out anytime blind folded are: David Sanborn, Gerald Albright and Michael Brecker (yes, and Mulligan of course, but that's no fair comparison as he's one of the few baritone saxophonist in the major scene. But that's not to say he DOESN'T sound massively unique as well!)

Brecker does it every time. I still have most of the Brecker Bros and Micheal Brecker CDs. I had Two Blocks from the Edge playing on a loop for probably a month following the devastating news of his passing. He was too good for this world.

Sanborn set a precedent and came out swingin, Mr. Washington Jr was up to bat and hit a home run, Curtis smoothed it out and funked it up, idk who ripped those cheeky notes but Albright wasn’t feelin that n went ham, Whalum brought us back to sanity, then Scott went crazy, Kenny G was like “wtf Scott” then had to match him, Mulligan came in and said “lemme switch it up real quick”, Koz laid down some funky stuff, then Becker put his balls on the table and said “behold”. Love the bit where they imitate Clinton on Arsenio. It’s hard to tell who i liked the most.

1:02 "New! Providing unwanted counterpoint." 😂😂😂

I didn’t not expect mulligan, Kenny g, or Grover Washington. Pretty cool

Wow these guys are still the relevant giants in the field and I have never seen Dave koz look so 😳

Dave Koz won in my book. The perfect balance of high squeals and melodic runs plus it was all played super clean. Michael Brecker was also insane for all the same reasons. They really saved the best til last, though unintentionally by the roster of names earlier on.

2:15 a ninja come up on the right.

Great job on the transcription...but the players' descriptions are just hilarious.

This is my new favorite video. Brilliant captions and incredible to hear Gerry Mulligan and Brecker napalm the entire group. YES. 😂

They knew no one would be able to follow Michael so they put him last lmao also Gerry's Battle Hymn quote is just great

Whalum's "unwanted" counterpoint always makes me crack up for some reason

Mulligan takes the cake on this one. Tasteful, appropriate, well done 🙌

TY for this. Great format, easy to watch.

Barely knowing ant of these amazing musicians, the descriptions in the video were really humorous, and you could tell came from a place of respect for the artists and their legacies.

Michael Freaking Brecker!

Great! Mulligan was the hippest, you dig! He quotes " The Battle Hymn of the Republic" it might have another name in church. " My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord, the truth goes marching on". LOL! I could still remember it!

We need more highlights on those descriptions -hilarious & great work. Something to wrote home about

This is probably one of the coolest things I ever saw. I had no idea this video existed. Bill Clinton...the jazziest white president they had so far ;)

"Providing Unwanted Counterpoint" had me giggling.

Still to this day one of my favorite videos of all time, all these sax players are just so themselves in their 4 bars of glory. A master class in various sax styles through the ages.

Just incredible. So much talent on one stage!

01:09 Kirks vibrato on that altissimo C was insane

A fun concert bookended by 2 originals from the Brecker Bros Band. Someone put some thought into the order of the soloists! Kudos on the great post!!

That was great! Loved Bills reaction there towards the end. 10/10

Thanks for this video! Your in-video comments gave me lots of smiles 😁.

Can we get some appreciation for the bassist. Bro carried the groove

that was amazing- its so nuts too how easily identifiable each saxophonist is. The first guy's sound made me think of Lethal weapon and then a second later the text popped up to confirm it 😂

amazing! that bass though. Gotta love it. love every part of it.

This is incredible. I didn’t know it happened. And Mr. Pres was so delighted. Thanks for sharing!

I love Kirk Whalum's most, maybe. I loved how Gerry Mulligan said "Screw the tempo" and gave us six bars of slow smooth soul. Can never go wrong with Kenny G. David Sanborn sounded like how I expect a saxophone to sound. Everyone was obviously good enough for the President, but those were my favorites from their six-bar samples. I could probably watch these guys jam all night, and I'm by no means a jazz guy. This was really spectacular.

My favorite presidential debate EVER. 😂

Man, this was cool! I am a fan of literally every sax player in this lineup. These guys alone make up half my music library.

BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

My man Gerry best solo of the bunch IMO. You can probably tell what Sax is my favorite.

Why have I never seen this? Holy Cow! All of these guys killed it. I'd like to hear the whole thing. Someone please point me to where I can see this.

It’s been so many years since I first saw this when it was happening. I had forgotten. This was truly great. Thanks for posting. Loved how they ended with heartbreak Hotel, which is what President Clinton, as the candidate played on Arsenio Hall. Of course I was watching that live. Somewhere in storage I have a pin back button with him playing the saxophone that says “blow, Bill blow”, Which I wore to the polls when I voted for him back in 1992.

absolutely love the info on all of the players

Mulligan and Brecker on one stage - WOW

Great short samples of modern jazz saxophone on a funky blues. Most choose to run 16th note blues scale runs with syncopated rhythms thrown in. Brecker went into his off planet abilities that were unique to him. Did Gerry Mulligan quote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at a Presidential Inauguration before he went into his bag of tricks? Hat's off to Mulligan. A bluesy melodic overture, a nod to the ceremony and America, and 3 bars of bebop.

That was so hip and nice to hear some of the saxes who usually play smooth jazz blow hot! I kinda knew they all would sound great here! Of course Mulligan was stellar in his baritone sax solo - playing cool yet hot. Great one I never heard before

Tom Scott … brilliant.

Tom Scott at 1:18. He is also the musician who plays the saxophone solo in Blade Runner and Taxi Driver films.

The heart break hotel at the end had me dying🤣

Very cool! Awesome lineup.

I needed this in my life right now

Never knew this existed! Brecker was the President of that line!

I’m sorry but Kirk’s counterpoint is my favorite part of this entire video- which is insane because I love all the solos so much

so glad I found this channel!!!

Wow those solos were amazing

Tom Scott is a sax legend. He played on a surprising amount of records

Those sopranos mimic trumpet tone so well it's insane

Absolutely amazing 🎉

Great job on this video, guys.

I love the fact that he looked over the moon with their performance

Dave Koz has the best dance moves of the bunch. Check them out during Kenny G's solo lol

Utter talent, pure wondrous ability, one dreadfully cold day.

That was amazing! :D

THAT SOPRANINO SOLO THO OMG!!

Amazing man so much respect for these artists

Man that was awesome!!!

The arrangement is interesting. Always going between 1 4 and 5 like a classic blues but going back and forth between Cmaj and Fmaj as the keys. Was pleasantly surprised to see Grover Washington here as well :)

Seeing Kenny Gs solo written out makes me appreciate him a whole bit more.

Am I the only person who only focused on how fire the bass line was? THE SLAPP WAS CRAZZZY

Outstanding!

As usual Michael brecker is the 🐐

R.I.P David Sanborn