Legendary musician Jim Horn connects

Austin music runs deep around here but Houston connects with Nashville, too… and L.A. connects with Nashville… and Houston connects with L.A. The travels of legendary musician Jim Horn affirm the links and then some.

Jim played sax with the Beatles, John Denver and Garth Brooks among countless others. I recognized him from early L.A. broadcasts and vinyl long before I met him in Nashville where he lives today, and having a famous musician visit me in Houston had its perks – like backstage access and free passes to performances by Jim playing with Delbert McClinton at Rockefeller Hall and Wynonna Judd during the Rodeo at the Astrodome.

Jim tells great personal stories about his Motown days and kicking around the club scene in Los Angeles with the Beatles – he and John Lennon got kicked out of a bar – but beyond those coming-of-age encounters, there are two universal musical accomplishments to note: (1) Jim Horn is the most recorded saxophone player ever; and (2) he introduced Nashville and Country Music to the saxophone. Here’s a blurb from his biography, an excerpt from Jim Horn’s official website.

Country Music Touring in the 90’s

Horn continued to produce and perform into the next decade, sharing his talents with the soulful Delbert McClinton, touring with Japanese singer Kioshiro (1992), and crooning a superb soprano sax on Can’t Tell You Why, Vince Gill’s cover of the Eagles classic. Proving that country really is cool, Jim played sax on a number of top-selling country albums, breaking the Titanic iceberg that separated hip R & B, Jazz and Rock from the “We don’t allow no saxophones on the Grand Ole Opry. That’s the instrument of the devil” mentality that has pervaded the country music scene for the last 35 years. Two giant artists helped hand out the ice-picks: Garth Brooks and Wynonna. Brooks invited Jim to play on his #1 album, In Pieces, which features Jim’s critically acclaimed sax solo on One Night a Day.

Horn also played on Wynonna’s triple-platinum album Tell Me Why. He played on the Black and Wy (Clint Black-Wynonna) tour, and spent the better part of a year touring solely for Wy who “is really cool because she didn’t tour with just one horn, but three”.

In September of 1997, Jim was a part of the massive Garth Brooks in Central Park HBO special, seen by millions around the world, during which he was featured soloing with Garth and Billy Joel on New York State Of Mind.

Jim’s sax enthralled the crowd. Oh the memories… and what’s really amazing about Jim is the variety and number of legendary artists he has performed with and the other instruments he has mastered. I first memory of Jim was him playing flute on one of my all-time favorite singles, “Goin’ Up the Country,” by Canned Heat, and then Jim’s piccolo on Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” and his alto on Elton John’s “Little Jeannie.’ So many notable roles and artists. I’ve included a partial hit list so you can identify a favorite Jim Horn sound or two.

Jim Horn’s Hit List Discography – For a COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY visit AllMusic

To date, Jim Horn has played on at least 120,000 albums. His credits read like a Who’s Who of the music business, a career highlighted with names like Bowen and Spector, King Curtis and Duane Eddy, and John, Paul, Ringo, and George. Very few musicians can claim to have worked with each individual Beatle. Horn can. Duane Eddy, Horn’s friend and mentor, has said of him “He just happens to be one of the best players in the world”. George Harrison and Eric Clapton back him up.

Below is only a partial list of the countless hits to which Horn has contributed greatly:

The Mamas and The Papas
John Denver
Delaney & Bonnie
Leon Russell “Lady Blue”
Rita Coolidge
Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tour / “Delta Lady”
Johnny Rivers “Poor Side of Town”
Jackson Browne “Running on Empty”
Ringo Starr “Don’t Go Where the Road Don’t Go”
George Harrison 1971 Concert for Bangladesh / 1974 Dark Horse Tour / “Cloud Nine” / “I Got My Mind Set On You”
Paul McCartney
John Lennon “Pussycats” (with Harry Nilsson)
Harry Nilsson “Pussycats” (with John Lennon)
Lionel Ritchie
Van Dyke Parks “Song Cycle”
The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” / PET SOUNDS
Linda Ronstadt
Barbra Streisand
Frank Sinatra “Strangers in the Night” (flute)
Elvis Presley
Joni Mitchell
The Carpenters “For All We Know” (oboe)
Canned Heat “Goin’ Up the Country” (flute)
The Fifth Dimension “Up, Up and Away” / “The Age of Aquarius”
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Toto “Rosanna” / “Africa”
Smokey Robinson “Tears of a Clown” (piccolo)
Neil Sedaka “Laughter in the Rain”
Ronnie Milsap “Lost in the Fifties Tonight”

The Rolling Stones GOAT’S HEAD SOUP
Steely Dan “Josie”/AJA/THE ROYAL SCAM
Roy Orbison
Diana Ross
Stevie Wonder “Ebony Eyes”
Tina Turner “River Deep, Mountain High” (baritone)
U2 “Angel of Harlem” (baritone)
Wynonna Black & Wy Tour / “Tell Me Why”
Garth Brooks “One Night a Day”
Eric Clapton 1971 Concert for Bangladesh
George Benson “Turn Your Love Around”
Boz Scaggs “Dirty Lowdown”
Righteous Bros. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” (baritone)
Seals & Crofts “Summer Breeze”
Little Richard
Warren Zevon “Excitable Boy” (tenor)
Duane Eddy “Rockestra Theme” (with Paul McCartney)
David Letterman’s CBS Orchestra, featuring Paul Shaffer
The Traveling Wilburys (Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan) Volume 1 / Volume 3
Tom Petty
Spiral Staircase “More Today Than Yesterday” (baritone)
Vince Gill “I Can’t Tell You Why”
Delbert McClinton “Never Been Rocked Enough”
Billy Joel
Aaron Neville
Hank Williams Jr. “Monday Night Football Theme” /BORN TO BOOGIE
Steve Cropper and Booker T. and the MG’sMEMPHIS (with Kioshiro) / 1992 Tour
Christopher Cross “Ride Like the Wind”

Obviously with a hit list that long, you’ll hear Jim’s work everywhere, even on broadcasts of the Weather Channel, in jingles for Burger King, and yes, at Starbuck’s, so check your old stacks of CDs and vinyl and keep an ear open for him.

Meanwhile, to put a wrapper on my night at Rockefeller’s music hall with Jim Horn and Delbert McClinton, here’s a tip if you’re out late with a music legend or have a guest in town and need to impress them with your knowledge of late-night eats: go to Mai’s Vietnamese Restaurant in Midtown at 3403 Milam St. 

“Sounds good,” said Jim, and he was impressed.

— E Draper