Interview with Saxophone Player Jim Wellen

11-18-19 Interview
11-18-19 Saxophone player Jim Wellen was drawn to music “before he realized it.” As an infant he would sit in front of this family’s record player mesmerized by the sound coming from it, a sound he later realized as Big Band Music. When he got his first instrument – a wax pan pipe -” he began to realize that he had a gift; if he can hear it he can play it! He was also gifted with generous and loving parents, who although too poor to afford it, took out a loan to buy him a very expensive saxophone, which he played for 40 years. Amazingly Jim never took lessons, he “just played.” Although as a “weekend warrior” playing everywhere that he could during his years as an English teacher, he was not able to play the music he loved. Luckily for him and for us he is able to do that now. Listen to his solo on East of the Sun from a CD he cut with Al Hixon’s Jazz band (Jim, Al Hixon, John Lamb and Mark Moultrup)