Sabertooth

Not to be confused with a Philadelphia-based alternative metal band called Sabertooth or a Northern California-based hardcore band known as Sabertooth Zombie, the group profiled in this bio is a jazz-oriented organ combo from Chicago. The Windy City's Sabertooth has been influenced by the soul-jazz/hard bop organ combos that were active in Philadelphia as well as Chicago and other parts of the Midwest in the '50s, '60s and '70s; gritty, funky, down-home organists such as Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove" Holmes and Jimmy McGriff have been an inspiration to Sabertooth, as have the big-toned, hard-blowing tenor saxophonists who often played with organists during the golden era of soul-jazz (including Gene Ammons, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Stanley Turrentine and Willis "Gator" Jackson). But the diverse quartet has often ventured beyond soul-jazz and hard bop and moved into post-bop and modal territory; John Coltrane's modal recordings of the early to mid-'60s have also influenced Sabertooth, and the Chi-Town residents are obviously well aware of the breakthroughs of Larry Young (a major innovator who brought modal post-bop ideas to the Hammond B-3 organ in the '60s and has been hailed as "the John Coltrane of the Organ"). So it is accurate to state that Sabertooth is both a post-bop group and a soul-jazz/hard bop group. It is also accurate to say that Sabertooth has had a highly diverse repertoire, ranging from countless jazz compositions to rock material by The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead.

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