Tonight I’m going to another rehearsal for a jazz quintet. I’m experimenting with mouthpieces at the moment, trying to get a more old-school sax tone. The mouthpiece I have been using since last year (a Michael Brecker II metal Guardala) is huge and gets a loud and “big” sound, contemporary and modern. I then played with an Otto Link 6* last rehearsal but that was still a big sound. Tonight I’m going to try the original mouthpiece that came with my saxophone when I bought it, a Yanagisawa ebonite mouthpiece…..not even sure of the size. Hopefully it will produce a smoother, more mellow tone that will fit in better with a jazz quintet setting. Should be fun either way!!!
Mar 03
This coming weekend I’ll be heading to Inverloch to play/perform and enjoy the annual jazz festival. I’m playing with the Out for the Count big band and a band put together specifically for the event, the Dave Hedges Superband. It is usually a great weekend so am expecting nothing less this year. I haven’t been for a couple of years so it will be good to get back and play some jazz music!!
Just found out the other day that I have to take my baritone, alto and tenor saxophones. It’s going to be quite the car load but luckily they do all fit in my small car!! Not sure what I’ll be using them all for yet. I’m playing 1st tenor with Out for the Count and using the other two saxophones in the Superband. We’re having a rehearsal for the Superband tomorrow night so I guess all will be revealed. Looking forward to it.
Got lots of work to do so will go for now. Will be back after the weekend for a run down of the jazz festival.
Jan 11
I just finished playing Spamalot. One of the most enjoyable things about it was the chance I had to play a Selmer bass clarinet that went down to a low C.
I knew I was going to be able to borrow one but it totally freaked me out the first time I played it. I got it at a rehearsal with the cast and had no time to practice playing it beforehand. It has such an amazing sound and by the end of the run, I was feeling quite comfortable. I still have it with me at home and look forward to playing some more bass clarinet before I have to return it. I will certainly be looking around the internet to see if I can find my own bass clarinet to buy. At one point a few weeks ago I had 3 different bass clarinets at home on loan!!!
The trickiest thing about the low C bass clarinet is the extra pinky keys. There are only 3 extra notes but the Selmer clarinet I used had 5 additional keys than I was used to. It had an alternate G#/Ab key for the left hand, two different low D keys and the thumb keys on the back for C#/Db & the powerful low C. What an awesome sound!! It took me some time to figure out all the keys and become used to what order I needed to play them in for some passages but I got it!! In the last show I even got some good looks from the MD because the sound was coming out nice and strong because I was much more confident.
I was so glad I got to play that bass clarinet for the show. There were only 2 reed/woodwind players in the show with one of the keyboard players playing other reed/woodwind sounds but I was really glad that I was able to play the bass clarinet parts.
