MAX SAX
ON THE
SB KIDS
BY SCOTT ANDERSON
As Max’s skills improved, he outgrew that starter saxophone. It was time for an upgrade. So Max had a choice to make. “He gave up going to Camp Ozark one summer to buy a new saxophone,” Peyton said. In the music business, landing your first big break sometimes depends on who you know. For Max, it was who his mom knew that opened that first door with Professor Porkchop and the Dirty Dishes. “My mom gets her hair done by Jason Coffield’s wife,” Max said. “Mom showed her videos of me playing. She told me to come out one night.” Max met bandmember Coffield along with lead singer and Professor Porkchop himself, Chris McCaa, and the rest of the band one night at Superior Grill. They invited him on stage, where he played “Havana” as his debut.
M
ax Mayeaux is not a typical 15-year-old boy. You see, before “Max on the Sax” blows at shows, Max on the Sax rides a horse, of course. And he’s pretty boss when it comes to lacrosse.
Max is a sophomore at Loyola College Prep, where he plays lacrosse and football. He also trains and competes in equestrian events with Hidden Acres Equestrian Center in Stonewall. He’s done that for 10 years. But Max found his love for music at an early age. He remembers listening to the music his parents enjoyed when he was very young. He also performed in plays at South Highlands Elementary, including the lead role in “Aladdin.” He picked up the saxophone for the first time as a sixth-grader in the Caddo Middle Magnet band program, under the direction of Krista Fanning. Why the saxophone? “My brother played before me,” Max said. “He played the saxophone, so I started with it, too.” His parents, Peyton and James Mayeaux, still remember that first instrument. “We just got a $250 alto sax I found online,” Peyton said.
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“I still can’t believe I played that in Superior Grill,” Max said. Max caught the attention of Chris Campisi with the band The Good News. “I was in sixth grade,” Max said. “I didn’t know how to do half the stuff I do now.” That all changed when bandmates Omenka Webb and Dirty Redd stepped in to augment his musical education. “I learned to really play in front of people, to know where I am in the music, to know what’s right and what’s wrong,” Max said. He started playing in front of people more often, with The Good News and also with Robert Trudeau’s Shreveport Second Line Brass Band. Max’s mom was aware from the beginning they had a showman on their hands. “When all this first started, we knew he was a performer,” Peyton said. “That wasn’t a surprise. It was when the switch flipped, and he could hear what others were doing and just play. When all of a sudden he could transpose in his head. That was huge. That’s when we realized we had an awesome responsibility.” It was a responsibility that took some adjustments, she added. “It was a bit out of our wheelhouse,” she said. “We’d be at Superior, and he’s studying spelling words between sets.”
