Guitar Heroes exhibit at the MOMA

I realize that I've been geeking out pretty hard lately with all of the articles about sax gear. I don't want to alienate my readers who aren't sax nerds, so here's something for the guitarists...

The MOMA is presenting an exhibit right now called Guitar Heroes- legendary craftsmen from Italy to New York. The MOMA's website for the exhibit features pictures of the amazing guitars on exhibit, as well as video interviews and performances by some of the master guitarists who play these incredible guitars.

Guitar Heroes MOMA exhibit website

Church of John Coltrane

Coltrane Church from Turnstyle Video on Vimeo.

Cruise Ship Drummer- Todd Bishop's Jazz blog

My buddy Todd Bishop, who is my go to drummer for sessions here at Casa Valdez Studios, has been beefing up his Cruise Ship Drummer blog. When he first started writing the blog Todd was working on a river boat (very small cruise ship) here in the Northwest. His blog mostly featured his fine photography and a few tales about his often boring and sometimes bizarre career as a cruise ship drummer. Recently Todd has taken his blog in a new direction and has been posting a lot of interesting stuff, including drum transcriptions, interviews, analyses, and other Jazz articles (which happen to be outside the realm of drums and cruise ships).

Cruise Ship Drummer blog

Sax technique question from Alex Canales

"Hello, David, my name is Alex Canales, a saxophonist currently working on the Royal Caribbean cruise line. I've been thoroughly enjoying your blog for years, thank you for putting in the time and effort!

Anyway, one thing I am interested in seeing addressed technique wise (forgive me if I happened to miss it) are the palm keys on saxophone. It's always been a bit of a problem for me throughout the years, and it's been hindering my playing. If I press them too hard and too fast, it causes more pressure in my lower lip. If I try to brace the saxophone better with my thumbs, they end up hurting after a while. If I try pressing them with minimal force and effort (like I do with my other fingers), then I sometimes don't depress them fast enough, or fail to open them all the way so the notes don't speak/go out of tune.

Would you be able to come up with some exercises and general guidelines for this tricky area? Maybe Matt Otto would have some useful input as well.

Thanks,
Alex"

"Alex,
tape some flat head thumb tacks facing point up on the palm keys... that should retrain you quickly. Just kidding. It seems like the question may contain the answer? Just practice playing a light and as gently as possible until you create permanent (habitual) change... might take a few years.. chances are, if you play the palm keys too hard, you're playing the whole horn to hard.
Matt"

"Matt,
Thank you! As I do this, do you recommend bracing the horn with the right hand at all? I play alto to the side of my right leg using a BG strap if that makes any difference. Alex"

Alex,
 I would recommend playing the horn straight in front of your body while standing- aligned with the spine as much as possible (this is how my Alexander teacher taught me), elbows slightly out - so that the wrists are straight, no support from the hands at all if possible, balance the horn by resting it on your waist... just my 2 cents... what does Dave think? He plays alto, I don't own one :(
Matt


DCV: That sounds about right Matt. When I'm playing while sitting I always play holding the horn between my legs, which seems to keep my spine straighter.

E-sax review

Do you ever wish you could practice your saxophone at 3am without bothering your neighbors? Shiji Hamanaga at Best Brass has a solution for you. It's called the E-sax. Shiji says that the e-Sax Shiji is not a mute but a sound transformer, because it changes the sound of the instrument weakens or alters the sound of the instrument.....and a sound transformer has 'infinite possibilities'.

 Hamanaga started his career as an engineer for Yamaha. While at Yamaha Shiji, a brass player himself,  designed the Silent Brass 'electronic sound silencer'. The Silent Brass system is a mute with a small microphone inside it that allows the player to listen to the sound produced through headphones. The unit comes with tone control and reverb, so it sounds like you're playing in a larger space.

After leaving Yamaha Shiji invented a similar electronic mute system for trombone, trumpet and French horn, which he called e-Brass. In 2007 Shiji released e-Sax, which presented more problems than the e-Brass system because a saxophone's sound doesn't just come from the bell. The saxophone sound is of course not totally silenced, just reduced by 25 decibels. When I was at NAMM this year I got to see the e-Sax up close and it looked like something out of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These e-Sax units retail for $599 ($399 at WWBW or $299 on eBay). My buddy Tom Pereira recently bought one for his tenor saxophone recently, so I asked him to write a review for this blog. Here's what Tom had to say about e-Sax:

"David,
  I wanted to share some of my experiences with the E-sax Mute. I’ve had it now for about two and half weeks.  I bought it second hand but it was in excellent condition.  I paid about half of what they normally go for and I feel that it was as much as I’d want to pay for one.  First off the fit and finish is pretty good.  It is a bit flimsy but it does the job.  The latches and neck strap hooks are sturdy enough.  The hook holes are like an old King; three holes in a row. The latches are your standard latches you’d see on any aftermarket case. The adjustment required to fit a horn (as horns vary) are intuitive, easy to figure and sturdy.  After getting it set up its easy enough to get your horn in and ready to go. 

  Once you’ve got it set up and your horn in the first thing you notice is how heavy it is.  I would say that it nearly doubles the weight I’m used to from my SBA. Not a trivial issue. I have been using a very padded neck strap and a neoprene strap as well (yes, two) and it helps, but not much. I’m thinking of switching to a harness for more support but I always felt like those things made horn players look like they work at Sam’s Club. Anyway, once you’ve got it strapped on you put your hands into the holes. The hand holes are made from a neoprene material and seem like they would hold up over time. I don’t know if they are replaceable if they tear. Once you’ve got your fingers on the keys you notice how odd it feels. There is plenty of room in the case but it’s just awkward. Nothing fatal but you simply notice it all the time which, in my limited experience, tends to make you think about having a mute on your horn instead of thinking about playing. It’s like playing with a five pound weight attached to the bell and a towel stuffed into it. 

 Then there is the playing. It does mute the sound pretty well. I’d guess about 60 to 70%. I also have tried the sax mute made by Lebayle and this is certainly more muted than that by at least 30% (the Lebayle certainly has it’s limitations beyond lack of muting but they list for $35 vs. $600). That said I have found it difficult to play the bell key notes. When playing b or b flat the case vibrates quite a bit and I have to over compensate when blowing to get the notes out at all.  

 Using the headphones is okay but the microphone is really terrible.  The sound from the headphones of my horn is really thin and not consistent through the registers.  It often distorts in the low end and makes the high end sound very thin.  I do like that you can put an auxiliary sound source (IPod) in and that sounds pretty good.  Playing music minus one with this setup can be overall decent, though the saxophone sound is more pronounced than I would prefer and there seems to be no way to adjust for that other than turning up the IPod volume, which is horrible for you hearing long term.  The manufacturers claim that you can use it for recording but I would not recommend that at all. 

 Ultimately I would say that if you need to mute your horn to practice this is as good as it gets.  It does mute the sound significantly and is a pretty good product overall.  The major downsides are; the weight (I can’t practice for more than an hour or so without getting back pain and I normally can practice for more than four hours without a break), the awkwardness of having a shell over your horn and hands, and the headphone sound. 

 If you can deal with the weight, awkwardness of having your horn covered and the poor sound quality I’d say that this is a good purchase, just look for one used." -Tom Pereira

When I was at NAMM I saw that the company also has a 'sound transformer' for the guitar, but it wasn't on the company's website yet. It was two rubber pieces that covered the tone hole and deadened the sound coming off the top of the guitar, along with the same mic/headphone unit that is on the e-Sax, which by the way includes a built in metronome.

e-Sax at Best Brass' website

Aaron Drake interview- part II

DCV: How did you first get the idea to make a ceramic mouthpieces?


AD: Well, this basically came from a curiosity about how material density affects sound. I grew up in a “science” household, and my father and one of my brothers both hold PhDs in the field. This has been a great advantage in figuring out the material and its attributes. Here is a little of the history- Growing up, my folks had a part time pottery and ceramics business. So, I was real interested in sculpture and working with clay from a young age. I made some interesting ceramic flutes that would take a sax mouthpiece when I was around 10 years old…lol. Well, this basically planted a seed in me that I went back to later.

 When I was in grad school I was very interested in the melding of Jazz with different ethnic folk music traditions. So, I got into all different types of ethnic flutes. About 2 years before I got the idea to try and make ceramic mouthpieces I was making all different types of ethnic flutes out of stoneware. I made Transverse, Quena, Double and Triple fipple type flutes. The sound and projection of these flutes was really amazing. I gave a lot of them to friends and a lot of people recorded with them. The density of the ceramic was so unique and vibrant. Then came the mouthpiece idea.


DCV: Can you explain how ceramic mouthpieces are made?


AD: This is a very involved process with a lot of different steps. But, thinking about it, the fundamentals of the process are not that much different from how Otto link metal pieces are made.


DCV: What is ceramic like to work with compared to resin or metal? How does it sound compare to those other materials?


AD: Ceramic is a pain to work with….lol. Lots of dust is created and you have to use diamond tools etc. When it comes to describing the sound difference from other more “traditional” materials, I would say it comes down to the surface density. The glazed ceramic has a higher surface density than any other material, so the air column moves very easily and fast. I think it is more a sensation that the player feels rather than a recognizable sound difference. Ceramic is basically between HR and Metal in its properties.


DCV: It seems to me that your pieces are incredibly consistent. Bravo by the way. How much time do you usually spend finishing each mouthpiece?


AD: Each piece has several hours of handwork in it. The finishing and balancing is time consuming. I am really in to preserving the tradition of mouthpiece making. I think I am one of the few out there that does not rely on CNC.


DCV: A lot of mouthpiece makers talk about how their curves are 'proprietary' or revolutionary. It seems to me, after measuring a lot of mouthpieces, that everyone uses mostly pretty standard curves. Can you describe the curves you use and how you came up with them?


AD: Yeah, I can understand why other makers are guarded about the information; it takes years of persistence and dedication to get it right. My conclusions about the facings have been arrived at primarily through my skills as a player. I have developed a very good understanding of the elements of the curve that contribute to how a piece feels. The key has always been to create a curve that has the right balance of resistance and freeness. Many players say they want a free blowing mouthpiece, and what they usually mean is that they want is a free blowing feel with enough resistance to enable expression and nuance in their tone. Yeah, I realize that this is a subjective topic, but I attribute the success of my mouthpieces to my playing and to a lot of experience working with players one on one.



DCV:Do you prefer longer or shorter curves?


AD: I think my facing curves would be considered medium, possibly leaning towards the long side.  I have found that the majority of players prefer this, and the range of overall responsiveness is greater.   
As always, it is about achieving balance.


DCV: You've recently started to make mouthpieces out of a material that you call Drake Vintage Resin. Can you tell me what this stuff is exactly?

AD: This is where I am lucky to have scientists in the family. My brother and father helped to engineer this material and to achieve the density properties. What really sets our material apart is the incorporation of ceramic particles. We are also incorporating brass and silver in a new material we introduced at the winter NAMM show.


DCV: What is the difference in density between the material with added ceramic and the material with added brass?


AD: The material with the added brass (or silver) is 12-14% more dense.

 
DCV: I’m guessing that the old vintage hard rubber was denser than the hard rubber most MP makers are using, is that correct? 


AD: Yes, I think you are right about that. 

 
DCV: It looks to me like your new Signature Studio tenor piece is based on a Berg with its bullet chamber. Is that correct?


AD: Well, not exactly. My original inspiration was a Guardala Brecker I. I wanted to see how the material would affect the sound with this type of design. It has a longer step baffle with a rounded transition and a large chamber. The Contemporary II is a bit more “Berg-like”. It has a slight reverse taper to the chamber.


DCV: Can you please describe the differences between your "Son of Slant" model and your NY Jazz model?


AD: I have the “Son of Slant” now in medium and large chamber models. The SOS has a traditional HR tenor outer dimension while the NY has the outer dimension of a HR alto for starters. The main difference internally is in the height and grade of the floor slope. I have been experimenting with this a lot and have noticed very slight changes will have amazing effects on the air column. I shape the baffle contour by hand to balance it with the floor dimensions. I am really pleased with how these pieces play.

Interview with Aaron Drake- part I

DCV: I see from your bio that you attended Eastman. Who did you study with there? 

AD: I was at Eastman from 1986–1993 (took a year off between my undergrad and grad work to go on tour). I Studied with Ramon Ricker (saxophone, clarinet, and flute), Rayburn Wright (arranging) and Bill Dobbins (history, improvisation, and pedagogy).

   

DCV: What kind of mouthpieces did you play before you started making them yourself? 

AD: Well, like most saxophonists who are “searching” for their sound… many. When I got to college I was primarily an alto player, and had a Meyer 5M made in the 70’s.  When I got into studying classical saxophone I use a Selmer C* and D. Around my junior year of college I switch to tenor and had a Florida link 7*.  From here the list goes on and on, but here are a few that I dug:  Dukoff Stubby 7, Selmer short shank D (when I was transcribing a lot of Joe Henderson), when I started working professionally more I got a Guardala Traditional Model (one the original “handmade” ones), but eventually went gravitated back to vintage pieces. Slant Links etc...

DCV: I think it's important to know what kind of ideal sound concept a MP maker has because a guy who's way into Kenny Garrett is going to make something radically different from a guy who really digs Lee Konitz. By the sound of your demo audio clips on your site you obviously have a very good saxophone sound. Personally I can't see how a MP maker or refacer for that matter can ever hope to do really good work if they aren't able to get a great sound out of the saxophone themselves. How would they even if apiece even played well?   What are some sound ideal saxophone sounds to your ear and are you thinking of these when designing your different MP models?
 

AD: Thank you!  This is a really great and important question.  My whole passion for making mouthpieces is really about a deep love for music and the sound of the saxophone.  In my studies of the saxophone I did many transcriptions of the great players.  Basically all the greats have influenced my sound concept in one-way or another.  Starting with Coleman Hawkins, Webster, Lester Young, Bird, Cannonball, Getz, Rollins, Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Eric Dolphy (not necessarily in that order), and the list goes on. Then the modern cats like, Mike Brecker, Jan Garberek, Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman, Bob Berg, Kenny Garret, Bob Sheppard, Rick Margitza, Chris Potter…there are so many guys that I dig, it’s hard to list them all.

 
DCV: How long have you been making MPs?

 
AD: I started making mouthpieces in 1990.  The first ones I made where sort of experiments.  A few years later I got really obsessed with figuring it out.  I guess I had made about 500 or so (out of ceramic) before I even thought about trying to sell them.

DCV: So you started by refacing MPs and keeping notes of MP specs. Did you just keep track of the pieces you liked or did you record all of them?  

  

AD: Yeah, lol.  I have binders full of facings.  Crazy, but I think each mpc taught me something.  I eventually found some favorites that stuck with me.

DCV: Do you still do refacings for people, or did you stop when you began to make your own MPs?

AD: Yeah, from time to time.  Now I usually refer guys to my brother Eric Drake, he has a shop in Berkely Calilfornia called Saxology and he is a master craftsman.  His website is www.Saxcraft.com



Drake Mouthpieces website

Gig Anedotes- crazy gig stories

Every working musicians has a couple of crazy gig stories. I know I have a few tales of insane gigs myself. There is a website devoted to these crazy gig stories called Gig Anecdotes and if your professional gigging life has become a bit dull, or if you have a gig yarn to add to the collection, then check out this site.

Gig Anecdotes web site

Are vintage Slant Signature Otto Links TOXIC!?!?!

Regular blog reader Sammy Epstein emailed me a very interesting question

 "Hey David,

You wrote about meeting with the Babbitt guy at NAMM, and that the old Slant Sigs were made with a substance that is toxic...do you know what that substance is?....and...Do you know whether it is toxic to the worker making the mpc (because of toxic dust)?....or....Whether the substance is toxic to mouthpiece users, by leaching toxic substances from the mouthpiece to the player through saliva? It would be nice to know that players aren't being poisoned by playing Slant Sig mpcs! Thanks in advance. Your blog is great...I'm continually finding the really good stuff on it that you are so generous in providing. Hope all is well...Best, Sammy"

When I first heard that the reason mouthpiece makers couldn't make the great vintage style hard rubber anymore was because some of the compounds were toxic I really didn't even consider the rather obvious question.....is my Slant Link poisoning me?!?! 

Tapping a rubber tree

I called Jim Greene, head of manufacturing at jj Babbitt, for some answers. Jim told me that mouthpiece rubber dust has a lot of different fillers added to it in order to get it to break down and some of these fillers are not available anymore. He wasn't specific about what exactly these fillers were and why they're not made anymore, but he did say that it was because the EPA passed laws that made it impossible to manufacture the stuff in this country anymore. He thought that it might still be possible to make the fillers in a country with less restrictive environmental laws, like Mexico or China, but that it would be too expensive because there was so little demand for hard rubber these days. Green said that Germany doesn't have the restrictive laws that we do and could make better rubber, but they use a totally different mouthpiece manufacturing method known as extruding, whereas we use molding.

 Back in the golden years of mouthpieces when the Slant Links and NY Meyers were being made there was a still a huge demand for rubber. Rubber was used in printing press rollers, bowling balls, and a thousand other products. Today most rubber is used to make tires, rubber bands and little else. Tire rubber does not require the same fillers to manufacture as good mouthpiece rubber. So there is no big demand for good hard rubber anymore.

 It would still be cost prohibitive for a Babbitt to set up shop in Malaysia, even if they hired a bunch of 10 year old kids and make the Slant Sigs. Jim told me that he has looked into buying the hammer mill that would be needed to grind the rubber dust needed to make their own hard rubber in order to have more control over the materials, but hammer mills are insanely expensive and then you also need to buy air scrubbing machines as well. 

Back to Sammy's question about getting slowly poisoned by playing a Slant Link.....

Jim claims that the finished vintage rubber pieces do not leach out toxins (of course he would have to say that). Once they are molded the compound changes and sets. Any discoloration is simply aging, not leaching. If you want your piece to stay new looking then you can try rubbing it with oil once in a while.

 

Kelly Bucheger's new 'Harder Bop' Jazz blog

Buffalo based Kelly Bucheger, an accomplished saxophonist and longtime loyal Casa Valdez Studios reader, recently launched a new Jazz blog called Harder Bop. The blog is off to a great start with some very nice transcriptions (Oatts, John Gilmore, Clifford Jordan, Kenny Garrett, Dexter, Rollins) and some insightful commentary on the solos. Be sure to bookmark Kelly's blog and send him harassing emails if he doesn't update it regularly. :-)

Harder Bop Jazz Blog
Kelly Bucheger's personal website

Rigotti's secret code for reed strengths

Have you ever gotten a bunch of different strengths of Rigotti reeds mixed up. Maybe you had some 3 lights, 3 mediums and 3 strongs mixed together and no longer had any way to tell them apart since they all looked the same? There is a secret code to tell them apart!! Ok, maybe it's not so secret, but no one has ever written about it before.

Here it is:

•  Strong reeds have the D  filled in with ink.
•  Light reeds have the O in the word Gold filled in with ink
•  Medium reeds have none of the letters shaded in

NAMM 2011- part II (Aaron Drake)

Aaron Drake of Drake mouthpieces was the person who got me into NAMM as a demonstrator this year. He brought quite a few of his mouthpieces to the show with him. It was the first chance I've had to get a good look at all of the different models he makes. I'd never seen his ceramic pieces before and I'd always been curious about them. Aaron had been making his ceramic pieces for a while and just recently started making pieces using more traditional materials in order to reach a wider market. The idea with the ceramic pieces is that they have much less surface friction as rubber and metal and they have a sound somewhere between hard rubber and metal. Eric says that they take forever to finish compared to resin/rubber.

The new Drake prototype resin compound w/ added brass

 I have been moving all of my alto students to Aaron's New York Jazz 'rubber' pieces with great results. These are the best modern alto pieces that I've ever seen and my students love them. I believe that Aaron's pieces would be even better than my vintage Slant if they were made from the same old hard rubber compound. One thing that Aaron has done to improve the compound he makes his pieces with is to add some ceramic powder to it in order to increase it's density. He brought a few new experimental pieces with him to NAMM that had some added brass dust added to the resin compound. The added brass makes the compound 11% denser, which changes the response and tone of the pieces. Beside, this stuff just looks COOL. It looks like the rubber piece has gold dust sparkles in it.

Aaron also brought some of his brand new metal mouthpieces with him. I would have tried them, but I didn't have a horn with me. I ended up bringing a couple of rubber Drake Son of Slant tenor pieces and a NY Jazz alto piece back home with me. They all play great and my students have been snatching them up as soon as they try them.

Look for my extended interview with Aaron soon.

Drake Mouthpieces

NAMM show 2011- part 1

 Last week I made a trip down to Los Angeles to play a few gigs and go to the NAMM convention. The night before I left we were having ice storms and freezing rain here in Oregon, but when I got off the plane it was a perfect 70 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Say what you will about LA, but winters there are about perfect. When I realized how good the weather was going to be I immediately tried to upgrade my rental car to a convertible Mustang, unfortunately there were none left and I settled for a big white Chevy Impala. With the help of my handy GPS navigator I set off for my rehearsal in Burbank, a trip that the GPS told me should only take 20 minutes. In fact, it took an hour and a half to actually get there.

Vibrato (Bel Air, CA)

 The rehearsal was to prepare for a quintet gig at a club called the Blue Whale, which is located in Little Tokyo. A few months ago I met a young guitarist through my blog named Tim Fischer. Tim was a regular reader of this blog a contributor to it as well. Last year he brought a trio called 3tet up for a Northwest tour and I helped him set up a quartet gig for us in Bend, OR. We ended up having a great time, so we decided to set up a few gigs in LA for us with my saxophonist buddy Matt Otto, who Tim had studied with while in school at Cal Arts. Tina Raymond, the trio's drummer, was able to get a quintet gig at the Blue Whale as well as a quartet gig at a swanky club in Bel Air called Vibrato owned by Herb Alpert and by swanky I mean a plain hamburger will set you back 20 bucks.

Blue Whale (Los Angeles)

 Before the Blue Whale gig my wife and I had the best bowl of ramen we had ever tasted at a place next to the club called Orchon Ramen. I once saw a Man vs. Food episode that featured the host eating a bowl of the very hottest ramen on the menu and practically expiring in the process. We opted for the milder ramen option, and without our pictures on the Orchon wall of bravery.

Matt Otto

Below are links to some MP3s from the Blue Whale gig, which featured Matt Otto on tenor, Tim Fischer on guitar, Emilio Terranova on bass, Tina Raymond on drums and myself on alto.

Brush Creek
Windows (in 5)
No Moon at All
Helping Others
B.Y.
Chibi

 On Friday morning I drove down to Anaheim to check out the NAMM show. As I was driving up to the convention center parking lot I notice that there were more rockers with big hair and black leather than I'd seen since I left Berklee. In the convention center there was a huge Latin band playing just inside the main entrance, loud and mediocre, BUT EXCITING. I'm sure that I had the exact same feeling in the pit of my stomach as the 8 year old kids had as they entered the main gates of Disneyland few blocks away. I was entering the Magic Kingdom of gear!

Shawn 'Thunder' Wallace

 Try to imagine five thousand rockers and horn players screeching out their highest and fastest licks all at once and you'll have a pretty good idea what it sounded like in the convention center. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that in order to have a real conversation with someone you need to position your ear about 8 inches away from the mouth of the person you're trying to talk to. There were something like five HUGE halls filled with rows of booths, everything from reeds and horns to strings and software. I tried to stay as far away from the percussion booths as I could, mostly because I didn't want my ears to bleed any more than they were going to already.

 There were many different live performances happening at different booths, like solo Heavy Metal rockers dudes wailing Ronnie Deo lines, small acoustic Jazz ensembles, and sax nerds playing unnaturally loud Smooth-Jazz licks. At the Gemeinhardt/Stephanhöuser booth Shawn "Thunder" Wallace, who teaches at Ohio State University, was performing with a quintet. I'd never heard of Stephanhöuser saxophones before. I've posted links to Shawn's outstanding YouTube sax lessons here before and even joked about his nickname, but I'd never really heard him play. Shawn sounded great. We talked and exchanged CDs after his set. I'm going to have to keep closer tabs on Shawn in the future.

One of the first booths I stopped at was jj Babbitt, makers of Otto Link, Meyer, Guy Hawkins, Wolfe Tayne, and Hite mouthpieces. I had a long conversation with Jim Green, who is head of production, about the history of Otto Links and about the new vintage Links that recently came out. I had heard rumors that these 'new vintage' Links were made from the old Slant molds, not true apparently. Babbitt collected a bunch of Early Babbitts and Slant Links, took measurements from them and then averaged all the numbers out to create an entirely new mouthpiece. I asked him why the tip rail on these 'new vintage' pieces is so much more curved than the modern Links. He told me that he asks his factory workers to give the tip rail a little more curve, but "sometimes they go a bit overboard". You can say that again. I like some of these new pieces, but they are highly inconsistent and you need to try a bunch of them out in order to find a really good one. Not bad for a $130 mouthpiece. I still think there's no substitute for having your piece finished by an actual saxophonist who play tests as he goes, but of course that will cost you more. 

New Vintage Otto Link

 I also learned that Babbitt didn't actually start to manufacture their own pieces until the company moved to Indiana. Before the factory moved they bought all of their blanks from a few different French manufacturers and only did the finish work. This means that Slants and EB Links were all made in France. I asked Jim why the rubber had changed so much and he confirmed the reason I had been told, a major ingredient in the rubber powder that is used to make the compound is no longer available, it's become illegal to manufacture because it is toxic. 


 I asked Jim if they were planning on making an alto vintage piece and he said that they were in the planning stages of making a 'new vintage' Meyer copy. Like the Link vintage model the alto piece will be designed by taking the average specs from several different classic Meyer pieces, probably both NY Meyers and Meyer Brothers pieces. You can expect this 'new vintage' Meyer alto piece to be released late in 2011 or early 2012. I'll be looking forward to checking this piece out. You can still get factory refacing done for about $65 if you send your pieces to Babbitt, but it can take up to six weeks to finish.

 Jim also told me that the Millenium Links are exactly the same as regular modern STM Links, except they have different plating. Who knew?

The next booth I stopped by was Rigotti, which was manned by Daniel Rigotti himself. I had a lot of questions for Daniel and was hoping to get some answers. One of the first things I asked him was about his American distributors. The only places you can buy Rigotti reeds from in the States are from Woodwind and Brasswind, Roberto's, Muncy Winds (but they haven't restocked in a long time) and another small music store in Los Angeles (which he didn't remember the name of). There are several different reeds that use Rigotti cane, which is absolutely best cane in the world as far as I'm concerned. The only major reed manufactures still exclusively use Var region cane are Vandoren and Rigotti.

Here is some more info on reed cane from John Robert Brown:

"The plant from which we make clarinet and saxophone reeds is gramineous, meaning that it is of the grass family, as are wheat and sugar cane. Thus, a hollow reed-cane stalk is not wood but a sort of large straw. It differs from wood in that wood grows from the centre outwards. Grass (reed-cane) grows rapidly inwards from the hard exterior. Reed-cane has a Latin name, Arundo Donax. Common names are Giant Reed, Spanish Reed and Canne-de-Provence. It is tall, tallest of the European Gramineae, and reaches a height of six metres in one year. During the second year it thickens towards the centre, and hardens. Reed makers cut the cane after two years. In Britain you can see Arundo Donax growing at Kew Gardens in London. Reed cane grows all over the world. The best known area for reed cane is the Var region of Southern France. Most grows in the alluvial planes to the east and west of the Mediterranean port of Toulon. The Var soil has a high silica content. The Adelaide area of South Australia has ideal soil conditions for the cultivation of Arundo Donax. Reeds have been grown there successfully during the last twenty years. An Australian reed-making industry began in 1991. Variations in the cane arise from the time of year when growth takes place and from the prevailing microclimate. After cutting, the cane is sun-dried. Then the harvesters cut it from knot to knot and season it for eighteen months."

 There are several brands of reeds that use Rigotti cane. Queen reeds are Rigotti cane and the have Rigotti cut, they are exactly the same Rigotti reeds. I think the sizing may be less specific. Queen reeds are often less expensive than Rigottis. Ishimori reeds are also EXACTLY the same as Rigotti reeds, no difference in cut or cane. The only thing is that they are much less accurately sized. An Ishimori 3 is going to contain Rigotti 2.5 strongs, 3 lights, and 3 mediums. Oh, and you will pay DOUBLE for Ishimoris once you figure shipping into the cost. How do you like them Ishimoris now?! The last two brands of reeds that use Rigotti cane are Roberto's and François Louis reeds. These two brands have slightly different cuts than Rigotti reeds. The angle of the cut from the top of the vamp to the tip of the reed is different. François reeds have a steeper angle, giving more material in the heart. Roberto's are somewhere in between François and Rigotti. Rigotti reeds are the flattest with the least material in the heart of the reed.

 I also posted this information on Sax On the Web, but the hard headed saxophonists there did not want to believe me. They somehow thought that Ishimori reeds were longer lasting, more consistent and generally better. One even said:

"Both my sax instructor and I are still playing the same two Ishimori's we started playing over a year and a half ago....can you say that about ANY Rigotti reeds? P.S. What do you think Daniel Rigotti is going to say.....he MIGHT be just a little bit biased towards his own reeds? Just sayin'!!!!!!!!!!!! ". 

  I replied to that post with:

"Rigotti harvests the 'Woodstone' cane, CUTS the 'Woodstone' cane, packages the 'Woodstone' reeds into 'Woodstone' boxes, shrink wraps the 'Woodstone' boxes of reeds AND THEN SENDS THEM TO ISHIMORI IN JAPAN SO THEY CAN SELL THEM UNDER THEIR OWN NAME. Woodstone doesn't do jack shit at any stage of the process except to put them in their catalog and on their shelves and sell them. They do not hand select them, they do not add their Woodstone magic.....THEY OPEN THE BOX THEY GET IN THE MAIL FROM RIGOTII AND THEY SELL THEM. "

Of course Daniel Rigotti doesn't care if you buy his reeds under the Queen, Brancher, Roberto's, Louis, or Ishimori labels. He still gets paid whatever they are called. Saxophonists can be such stubborn and superstitious knuckle heads when it comes to gear. They just get attached to ideas based on subjective perceptions and then they do not let any rational facts change their minds.

 I was curious about the problems that WWBW and Muncy seemed to also have with keeping Rigottis in stock. I thought that maybe the demand was increasing so fast that Rigotti couldn't produce enough new product to keep up. Turns out the retailers just have poor planning, no lack of supply. One last piece of info is that Rigotti tenor reeds are the same as Rigotti bass clarinet reeds. I was hesitant to write about this and I promised my buddy Nat (who discovered this fact) that I'd keep it secret. For a while there the bass clarinet reeds were several dollars cheaper than the tenor reeds, but I think WWBW and Roberto have gotten wise and raised the bass clarinet reed prices to match tenor prices. So you can always order bass clarinet reeds if your tenor reed strength is out of stock.

More later.....

I'll Take Romance transcription

Bay Area saxophonist Charles McNeal has a one of the most useful site on the net with tons of free saxophone transcriptions available for download. He's been threatening to transcribe one of my solos and he came through today with a solo of mine on I'll Take Romance. He pretty much nailed every note as far as I can tell. Charles has also included an MP3 of the entire original track, which is from my unreleased CD Desert Flower.

It's feels like a milestone to be honored in this way. Thank you Charles and great job!


Transcription of David Valdez's solo on I'll Take Romance (scroll down the page)

Question from a student about learning licks

This question was from a Canadian student of mine named Bryan who I've been teaching via the internet. 

Question:

"David, just a quick question. Is it normal to spend an hour or more trying to learn a lick? I was learning the last four bars of Chris Potter's RC solo but it felt like it took forever just to get the fingers to work through the notes in every key. I realized that I wasn't putting enough time on learning licks to the point of being effortless, so spending so much time just getting one 'thing' down is a pretty new concept."

My answer:

I must say that I feel that learning licks in every key is a total waste of time. First of all, licks work better in certain keys and do not lay well on the horn in others. Second, if learn a pattern in 12 keys then you're much, much more likely to repeat yourself. Even if you play the same lick in a different key it's still going to sound like you're repeating yourself. Wouldn't it be more productive to learn 12 different licks in 12 different keys than to learn one lick in 12 keys? It really wouldn't take much more time and you'd end up with 1200% more usable material at the end of the day.

Don't get me wrong, learning to play in every key is critical, but learning licks in every key isn't the best use of practice time even though it's generally accepted as the way to learn jazz. Instead, practice moving small cells around to different keys, not entire phrases. This way you'll still learn to play ideas in different keys without becoming a lick machine.

A good example of what I'm talking about is Mr.X's (well known teacher at a major Jazz school) teaching method, which is the common way of going about learning to play. He gives all his students pages of Bebop licks and makes them learn them all in every key. What's the result? They end up all sounding as stale and contrived as he does. Mr.X has this certain 9 note chromatic approach that he likes (C.B.Bb.D.F.A.Ab.F#.G) and he likes to play things in every key. Once I counted how many times he played this one very recognizable pattern in one solo and I think it was something like 13 times, in different keys mind you, but it still sounded redundant.

The saxophone is set up a certain way ergonomically and some phrases just don't work well, or even sound good, in certain keys. A good illustration of this is to try to play through the Charlie Parker Omnibook in concert or Bb. The lines do not sound smooth and so they do not make as much musical sense. You would never want to play most of Birds phrases in keys other than the key he played them in. That was part of what made him sound so great, his lines were so effortless. They wouldn't have been effortless if he had been playing those lines up a minor sixth or up a fifth. Even Bird would've sounded clunky.

I realize that many teachers would strongly disagree with me about this, but it seems pretty clear to me. The main thing to watch out for when you learn licks is not to sound like you're playing licks, so learning everything in all keys is obviously not the best solution.