Arts Alive! podcast: Mindi Abair

One of only a handful of million-selling saxophone players who happen to be women, Mindi Abair is known for her bone-shaking, roots-rattling approach to jazz, giving it a tough, visceral edge – where few sax artists have dared to tread. She is truly one of a kind.

Abair is our guest on today’s edition of the Arts Alive! podcast. It’s one of our occasional video interviews, done via Zoom, because the Grammy-nominated musician is perennially on the road. She and her band have been in Florida all week – she recorded this Zoom interview from her Jacksonville hotel.

Abair’s relationship with the Tampa Bay area goes back a ways – she was actually born and raised in St. Petersburg, but spent years traveling with her musician father for gig to gig. She started playing saxophone while attending Northside Christian School, and was drum major during her junior and senior years. She graduated in 1987.

Then came the jazz program at the University of North Florida, then the Berklee School of Music. Abair next journey to Los Angeles, where she became a session player, and the touring saxwoman for the Backstreet Boys, Aerosmith and many others, before launching her solo career.

All of which brings us to tonight’s performance, a Christmas show with Abair and her band, at the Capitol Theatre in Clearwater. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are available here.