Joe Viola- 'Yoda of the Saxophone'

Here are some overtone exercises that I got from Joe Viola. They are actually pretty standard, but very helpful. Joe V had a personal way of teaching. He knew how to get each student to do exactly what he wanted. Sometimes he would make me honk like a sick goose to get me to open my throat, I was usually pretty embarrassed because Tony 'Antonio' Hart was always waiting outside for the next lesson. Other times he would put on a little latex finger cover on and go prodding around my mouth to get my tongue into the correct position. When I try to remember exact the things he taught me I kind of draw a blank. Most of the time we just played duets or etudes in unison, he would stop every time my intonation or something else was not right. Aside from being kind of like a 'Yoda' of the saxophone he was almost saintly, he reminded me of what a real priest should be like. He set a high example of spiritual and moral conduct for all of his students and I'm sure that everyone who knew him also probably felt the same way about him as I did.
Once at a woodwind recital at the main performance hall some of his students surprised him by doing a hip-hop number at the end of the show. The students dressed up as rappers, with gold painted chain link necklaces and rapped a hip-hop number about Joe V while Go-Go girls in sparkling skin tight body suits danced on either side of the stage. I was sitting right next to Joe during the unexpected finale and saw that was laughing so hard he cried, he was really touched.

Joe really took me under his wing. He would sometimes take me to classical saxophone recitals at other colleges given by visiting professors. He also honored me by having me sub in his own double quartet (sax quartet + rhythm section). That was some of the hardest sight-reading that I've ever had to do in my life.

Most people don't realize just how many of the great saxophone players of today were taught by Joe; players like Brecker, Branford, George Garzone, and Charlie Mariano. He was right up there with Marcel Mule, Joe Allard and Sigard Rascher. The Selmer factory would bring them all him to the factory when they were working on the Mark VI. I don't think that he really even considered himself a Jazz player, just a woodwind player. He was amazing on ALL the woodwinds. There is an album that he recorded for the Berklee label years ago that he overdubs all the woodwinds- oboe, flute clarinet, English horn, EVERYTHING. He once told me when I asked him about the difference between a classical saxophone sound and a jazz saxophone sound that," A good saxophone sound is a good saxophone sound, period". He wrote only a few books, the ones I really like are his 'Technique of the Saxophone' volume II and his sight-reading studies book. Technique Volume II was so good that it has recently been republished for all the other instruments. You really get a sense of his harmonic and melodic concept in these books, his lines are incredibly cool. George Garzone told me that even though Joe V never really talked much about these things, he got his melodic and harmonic sense from playing out of Joe's books.

Joe knew everything there was to know about every single note on the saxophone. He had tons of alternate fingerings for every conceivable situation that a saxophonist might encounter, for example playing with trumpets or flutes. It is even said that he taught the famous 'Sax Doctor' Emilio Lyons everything he knows about fixing saxophones. More importantly he knew just how to inspire and motivate each student. He was always compassionate, nonjudgmental and was never critical, except when he knew that I really hadn't worked as hard as I could have. Then he would just flash me a quick look that let me know that he was dissapointed in me for not doing my best. I had never had a mentor like that before then and I probably won't have another one.There was only one Joe V, there will never again live anyone who has truly mastered the saxophone to the degree that Joe V did. He was the last of a now extinct breed.

Here are some more articles about Joe V-
http://www.berklee.edu/news/2000/06/joeviola.html
http://www.berklee.edu/bt/131/final_cadence.html
http://www.berklee.edu/news/2000/06/joetrib.html
http://www.berklee.edu/bt/113/joevee.html