dylan cramer born january 21 1958 in vancouver british columbia is a canadian alto saxophonist and jazz musiciancramer took up the saxophone at age 13 after the sudden death of his father four years later in 1977 cramer heard a recording of alto sax legend sonny criss and was so taken with sonnys playing that he traveled from canada to los angeles to study with him after developing a close relationship with criss that lasted only eight months sonny criss committed suicide cramer was devastated by the loss after briefly attending the dick grove school of music in los angeles 197779 cramer was recommended by grove to study privately with phil sobel one of las finest studio musicians this was a monumental turning point in cramers life phil totally changed my life and thinking on the saxophone cramer recalls cramer worked with sobel from 1978 until sobels death in 2008 the combination of sonnys heartfelt lessons along with phils insistent relentlessness that i play the saxophone at the highest level possible was perfect for me cramer concludesin 1997 20 years after sonnys death cramer decided to do an album in his honor for that recording remembering sonny criss he hired jazz legend and friend of sonny leroy vinnegar on bass leroy truly made the session special cramer recalls he loved sonny so much and he really dug what we were doing with the record he gave his heart and soul to the recording and it remains my proudest record to date says cramer in 2011 nagel heyer records from hamburg released the tribute worldwide in 1998 cramer recorded a classic album all night long which was received with critical acclaim worldwide and was a top seller on amazoncom for many months in 2003 cramer recorded his third album bumpin on sunset which continued cramers masterful interpretations of movie themes latin tunes and bluesy ballads 2009 marked the release of cramers fourth album alto released on his own record label casa records currently cramer is working on his fifth recording and teaching saxophone in vancouver canada