Shawn "Thunder" Wallace's YouTube lessons

Saxophonist and educator Shawn 'Thunder' Wallace has posted some of his lessons on YouTube. Thunder has some worthwhile stuff on there, despite the silly nickname.

Lesson videos

James Mahone's Practice Portal

James Mahone is a very nice saxophonist who is currently residing in Tokyo. When I was living in NYC in the late 90's James and I played a few sessions together with our mutual friend Matt Otto.

James now writes a great educational Jazz blog called Practice Portal, which has some interesting transcriptions with accompanying MP3s.

Nice work James.

Fly

I went to hear trio Fly last Saturday night here in Portland. The trio consists of Mark Turner on saxophones, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums. I grew up playing with Jeff and Larry, who are also from the Bay Area, so it was great to see them both. I was at Berklee with Mark and we played in a few ensembles together. When I heard that these guys were going to be in town I thought it would be great to try to record with Jeff and Larry while they were in town, but unfortunately their tour schedule was too tight. After you've had a chance to work with those two then it's kind of downhill from then on.

Most of the saxophone world has heard about Mark Turner's horrific power saw accident last year where three of the fingers on his left hand were nearly severed. This is of course just about every musician's worst nightmare come true and this news send cold shudders up the spines of saxophonists round the world. Thanks to the marvels of modern medicine Turner is back in action. I think that this was Mark's first major tour since the accident and he certainly didn't sound like there he was having any problems from it, though it did appear that he experiencing pain in his hand. I'd never heard Turner play soprano before. He was playing a Yamaha 62 and had a similar sound concept on it as he does on tenor, ultra hard reed with a wide open mouthpiece. He was getting a nice dark complex tone and had a lot of control of the instrument.

Jeff and Mark were killing, but the highlight of the evening for me was Larry. He was so fluid and natural sounding. It never sounded like he was playing any patterns that he had worked out before hand. His technique and intonation were stellar and his sound was fat and rich. To my ear Larry's compositions held together as complete musical ideas. All of the material that the trio played was intricately arranged and incredibly difficult. They definitely have taken the chord-less trio to a new place.

I have to admit that I wasn't knocked out by Fly's first CD. Excuse the pun but it seemed that it just didn't get off the ground. After checking out their live show last weekend I'm now quite interested to hear their new recording. These three guys are all monsters and their trio really has some serious wings.

Fly trio website
Fly- All About Jazz

Sight Reading Tune

Here's a little etude for your some sight reading practicingClick on the image to enlarge and print

Instituto Antonio Carlos Jobim

If you love the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim then you must check out the Instituto Antonio Carlos Jobim website. On this site you can access the 720 original handwritten scores of the Brazilian master, 77 videos, liner notes, 127 audio recordings, discography, 58 drawings, poems, and much more.

This site is an amazing resource for anyone who plays Brazilian music.

Instituto Antonio Carlos Jobim

Prague International Summer Jazz Workshop

I've been invited to teach at the Prague International Summer Jazz Workshop this year. The workshop runs from July 18th to the 25th. My old buddy Jeff Ballard taught there last year and told me that he had a great time. I've started looking for other teaching or gigging opportunities in the general area for the the week or two following the workshop. The major cities that relatively close to Prague are Berlin, Budapest, Bucharest, Gratz, Dresden, and Munich. Zurich might also be a possibility.

If any of you readers have any leads (or gigs) for me I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

If you're interested in attending the workshop check out the Prauge Summer Jazz Workshop website.

My email is: casavaldez@comcast.net

Thanks!

Tom Garcia's neck modification

A few weeks ago a saxophonist named Thomas Garcia moved into the house across the street from me. Tom is an accomplished machinist as well as being a talented saxophonist. His hobby is making unique modifications to his horns. One of his modifications is something that I actually had considered years ago, but never had the skills to try.

Think about the fact that any changes made to a saxophone are going to have a more drastic effect the further up the horn they are. For example, changing out your bell will not nearly be as significant as switching necks or mouthpieces. Even tiny changes made to the inside of a mouthpiece can change the entire feel and timbre of the horn.

I always wondered why the transition from the mouthpiece to the neck had to be so abrupt. The airflow going through the chamber of the mouthpiece hits a significant edge as it moves into the neck. This edge is the thickness of the walls of the neck plus the neck cork. It would seem to make more sense in terms of air flow if the inside wall of the neck angled in to meet the chamber of the mouthpiece chamber. This would create much less turbulence at a crucial part of the horn, but it would also present some practical problems for horn manufacturers.

The first problem is that because the end of the neck would come to a sharp edge instead of a flat edge surface the neck would be too delicate. The sharp edge would be prone to being bent out of shape and if it were dropped on the end it would be over. The second problem would be the getting the mouthpiece to fit perfectly if the edge of the neck came to a sharp point.

Tom's solution to the mouthpiece/neck turbulence problem is to machine kind of a spigot like ring that fits perfectly on the end of saxophone neck. This little ring is perfectly fit to the dimensions of your neck and the dimensions of the chamber of your mouthpiece. You just push the ring onto the end of your neck and it fits snugly, not changing the neck permanently in any way. If you decide that you want to keep the thing on then you would put about two or three tiny drops of super glue on the end of the neck to attach it semi-permanently. If you wanted to remove it at some point then all you would need to do is give the ring a couple of light whacks and it would right pop off.

There are a few people out there selling similar products, but none of these other neck modifiers are custom fit for your particular horn and mouthpiece combination. Tom said that his attachment increased response and volume to a degree that you actually needed to move up a half size in reed strength.

Tom made me a neck attachment for my alto after measuring the exact dimensions of my neck and Slant Link mouthpiece. It was made of brass and fit perfectly on the end of my neck and into my mouthpiece. This made the neck stick into the mouthpiece a little bit more, which of course made the chamber a little smaller. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first tried it on my horn. It changed the timbre and the response drastically. It sounded like I had just put a baffle in my mouthpiece. The higher partials were brought out, making the tone brighter. There was also significantly less back pressure and the horn was definitely louder. Although the greater response and increased volume was interesting, but I wasn't happy about the extra brightness.

Tom went back to the shop for the to craft the Mark II, which was going to have a steeper angle. This one was shorter and the transition from the mouthpiece to the neck was closer to a 45 degree angle. The Mark II it made a less noticeable change in the sound than the Mark I did. I still felt a little more punch and volume, but it did still bring out the highs a little more than I wanted. After playing it for a while a finally decided that I liked my tone better without any neck modification.

I would see how some other players would find Tom's neck ring very desirable. A saxophonist who is looking to increase their volume and projection in order to be heard over a loud amplified band for example. Instead of switching from a hard rubber to a metal mouthpiece with a baffle, the player could just pop the neck ring on. They wouldn't need to deal with switching back and forth from rubber to metal every time they played with a different band. They could just use the same piece that they're used to and pop the ring on an off.

Saxophonists who play darker horns might also use the neck ring to get a little more zip without making mouthpiece changes. Players who are working hard to play a mouthpiece that is a bit too open would also find the neck ring helpful because it makes reeds feel softer and decreases resistance.

Tom brought over his Martin baritone my house because he wanted a second opinion about how his neck ring sounded. I listened to him play with and without the neck ring and to my ears he sounded much better with the attachment. It made his bari sound more present, clearer, punchier, louder and I didn't mind the added edge at all. There was no question in my mind that the neck ring made a huge improvement.

I feel that my sound concept on alto is pretty much at the darker extreme compared to most players. This makes me shy away from any changes that make my sound brighter. I realize that most players aren't going for the same sound that I am, so I'm sure there are a lot of guys that would absolutely love Tom's neck ring. I could also see how tenor or bari players night find it more desirable than alto players.

As far as I know, the other manufactures that are making neck modifiers that use the same concept don't fit the piece to a specific neck and mouthpiece. Because of this I don't see how they could possibly be as effective as Tom's custom made neck rings. Tom is a trained machinist and his work is very exact. In order to make a custom neck ring he needs to measure the neck and mouthpiece himself. He won't trust a layman with a caliper to make the correct measurements.
This means that if you're interested in having Tom make you a neck ring then you need to send him your neck and mouthpiece. You can ship it overnight and insured and he'll ship it back to you the same day.

Tom charges $100 for a custom made neck modification. If you don't like it you can return it and get a $50 refund. Tom must keep half to cover his time spent manufacturing the part.

Thomas Garcia:
garcia.thomasb@gmail.com

Jerry Bergonzi instructional videos

Thomas Trulsson has put together a playlist of a bunch of Jerry Bergonzi instructional videos on YouTube. These videos were produced by the Rico Reed company.

Jerry Bergonzi instructional videos

Rare recording of Trane practicing Four

Over at Larry's Improv Page Tony Miceli has posted recording of Trane practicing Four with a drummer, possibly Elvin, who sounds like he's playing on the bed. This could be a glimpse into Trane's road practice habits.

Trane practicing Four

Taran's Free Jazz Hour blog

Taran's Free Jazz Hour is a French radio show that also has a killer blog. This site is a goldmine of quality content- interview, videos, music and articles. Be sure to check out the interview with my buddy Bert "Wheels" Wilson.

Taran's Free Jazz Hour blog

Norbert Stein's Pat Workbook for saxophone technique

Here's free download of a great saxophone technique book by the prolific and highly accomplished Norbert Stein:

Pata Music Workbook

Gary Bartz on Miles Davis

Bret 'the Jazz Video Guy' Primac posted a video on his site that features Gary Bartz talking about his time with Miles. Bret also has a 334 videos on YouTube that are worth checking out.

Don't Call Me a Jazz Musician- Bartz on Miles

Bret's YouTube channel

Here are a few of my favorites:
Eric Dolphy "History"
Harmonica Rascals
The Universal Mind of Bill Evans
Parrot sings Horace Silver
Hans Groiner- episode 1
Jazz Dispute
Ethel Smith plays Hammond

Blog MP3 downloads- almost the entire Stan Getz catalog!

There are a lot of blogs that have links to audio files that you can download for free. If you're a digital pirate then you may want to take a look at this one, it's called Music Blog of Saltyka.

About half way down the page (after all the bad '80s Boy George album) there are a ton a great Jazz albums for download.

YouTube Jazz video search page

Here's a link to a very useful web page put together by Brad Sharp that allows you to quickly search YouTube for specific Jazz players. The page is a huge list of players arranged by instrument and date of birth. When you click on a name of a musician it searches YouTube for all the videos by that particular player. This is just a handy page to keep bookmarked.

YouTube Jazz Video Search

Mario Abbagliati's Jazz Guitar Blog

Mario Abbagliati's Jazz guitar blog has some nice transcriptions and harmony articles. Mario is from Chile and his blog is in Spanish, but Yahoo's Googlefish translator page is always an option (and often very funny).

Wes Montgomery transcriptions
Grant Green's Minor League solo
Peter Bernstein's I Mean You solo

Mario Abbagliati's Blog de guitarra jazz