It will sound practically impossible to have a saxophonist who has never played a saxophone but on the other hand, it is all about a little tilt in the ideology of who a saxophonist is.
For Rivers State born, Jim Okioye aka JimmySax, the saxophone is all about the sound and not the slender golden coloured pipe that produces the sound which has made legends like Femi Kuti, Lagbaja and others who they are today.
JimmySax said everything started like a joke when he was making funny sounds with his mouth and as he grew up, he fell in love with music, learned the keys and then modified his game.
“I started playing right from my mother’s womb, making sounds with my mouth. I joined the children choir in my church and that was it.
With time, I started playing saxophone with my mouth in my church about and having worked with great musicians and choirmasters, I came to learn so much especially where it concerns musical notes.
That knowledge has helped me in giving out the right sounds and there is no way you will realize there is no saxophone in the event, you will have 100% conviction that a saxophone is being played.
It is so unfortunate that I have never played a saxophone before, but I don’t think I have any need for that because the sounds I need are already with me” He said.
JimmySax who is also an architect by profession said he doesn’t see anything wrong with calling himself a Saxophonist because to him, it is all about the sound and not the instrument.
“I love what I do and I do it very well which is the most important thing, but I don’t just want to do well in that because I want to grow.
Because I can sing, I want to sing as well. I want to combine the sounds from my mouth with my voice to make good music, something people will appreciate and something that will also show that I didn’t let the talent God gave me to lie fallow”
To that, JimmySax has announced that he will be releasing an Extended Play [EP] titled ‘Reactivated with Your Love’ later in November, adding that the EP release will be kicked off with the release two singles ‘Your Love’ and ‘Chukwu’ on November 7, 2014.
