If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. Deciding to learn how to play the saxophone is one thing.

Almost no other instrument seems so synonymous with jazz as the sax. Listen to some classic alto playing from Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt and more greats.

Seventy years ago, jazz great Charlie Parker played a plastic saxophone at what many call the greatest jazz concert ever. A new deluxe reissue of that recording is out now. More than 70 years ago, ...