Ben Britton is a wonderful saxophonist who I met online a year or so ago. I listened to some of his sound samples and reached out to him because I loved what I heard. He’s a jazz musician, an educator, a blogger, and now an author. With this book, Ben is bringing many years of personal experience… Continue reading Book Review – A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist by Ben Britton
Author: Barry
I've been playing the saxophone professionally for over 30 years mostly in the Baltimore/Washington DC area. I've been through a lot of trials and tribulations trying to learn and play this wonderful instrument and my hope is to pass some knowledge along to others and maybe save them some of the trouble. At the very least I want to give you some things to think about even if you do something different or disregard what I say completely.
Pete Thomas PPT Metal Tenor Mouthpiece Review
I recently had the chance to try one of these mouthpieces thanks to a pass-around that Pete put together through Sax on the Web Forum. I had practically forgotten that I was supposed to be in it until I started seeing posts from Pete on the forum and I thought I was going to see… Continue reading Pete Thomas PPT Metal Tenor Mouthpiece Review
Saxophonist Jimmy Greene
In the tragic shooting in CT yesterday, one of the victims was the young daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene, Ana Grace. I have seen it suggested that it would be a great sign of support for him if musicians (or anyone really) would download the song he wrote for her on his album Mission Statement.… Continue reading Saxophonist Jimmy Greene
Always Leaves Me With a Huge Smile
Every year for the last ten years I have been lucky enough to be a part of a big band Christmas concert to benefit Toys for Tots. The band is called the Ken Ebo Big Bop Band and is lead by an incredible musician who both plays trombone and sings. It features some of the… Continue reading Always Leaves Me With a Huge Smile
News and Reviews in Progress
A couple of things to catch up on: I’m not quite ready to do a full review on my new Cannonball Big Bell Stone Series tenor but early reports are really good. I would never want to do a full review without first playing it on the gig since for me nothing I do in… Continue reading News and Reviews in Progress
Review – Haynes Saxophone Manual
This is a book I had heard about for quite a while but had never taken the time to purchase even though I was very interested in getting it. A couple months ago while researching for my recent horn purchase I stumbled across Stephen Howard’s website because he had some excellent reviews about some of… Continue reading Review – Haynes Saxophone Manual
Trying Horns
I mentioned before that I was ready to try out some new horns in order to choose a new backup horn and also to fill the need for something shiny for certain types of gigs. I have done a lot of research and one of the brands I really wanted to try was the Cannonball… Continue reading Trying Horns
More From Emma White and Artscape 2012
While they were filming the documentary-style video I posted earlier, they ended up capturing a ton of raw footage. Today Emma posted a full version of Aretha’s Baby I Love You from that footage so I thought I would share. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Aq7Rn5g_E I like how the horns for this song are just minimalist, well-placed hits and some… Continue reading More From Emma White and Artscape 2012
The Crack the Sky CD Is Out!
EDIT: the YouTube videos got pulled so I will upload some audio snippets soon. It actually came out a couple of weeks ago but with all my recent travel I just wasn’t able to post about it. The new CD is called Ostrich. My regular horn section, the Retox Horns, recorded three songs for the… Continue reading The Crack the Sky CD Is Out!
Darmon Meader
I got the chance to go see Darmon Meader last night for the ridiculously low price of only ten bucks. In my mind that is the deal of the year. He was playing at Harford Community College in Maryland (my old stomping grounds growing up) in a very intimate concert hall with his quartet: Klaus Mueller… Continue reading Darmon Meader