Long Tones

If you ever doubted the importance of long tones then check out this lesson by Matt Otto.
http://mattotto0.tripod.com/id32.html
Of particular interest to me was the fact that the practise of long tones are essential for helping to stay relaxed while playing. If you feel like me, that you sometimes find yourself overblowing or tense while playing, following the method outlined in this lesson helps to avoid this by developing better long term habits.
Once again, thanks goes to David Valdez's blog for finding this. This site is really the best jazz site I have seen on the web and essential reading for any serious musician.

Indian Summer

Its been a long time since Ive managed to update my Blog and I hope to soon. I have been very busy in the last few months, but its summer here in India and things are slowing down. I will be in cooler weather though soon playing some gigs with indo fusion group Emergence. We are playing at Glastonbury and Sunrise Festivals amongst other places. Check out www.myspace.com/emergencemusic for further details.

Jazz-o-matic.com

Many thanks to Tomas Trulsson for e-mailing me the link to this site. Jazz-o-matic is a great site by Richard Thurgood dedicated to studying the saxophone. It provides a place where musicians can share, and hear through recorded audio files, how other saxophonists are playing and practising. It includes a wide selection of lessons and exercises, as well as resources such as books from members, transcription services and links to other useful sites. An excellent internet resource, and a must read (or listen!) for students of the saxophone.


http://www.jazz-o-matic.com/

Scales vs Rhythm

I hadn't checked the jazz and improvisation section of the Sax on the Web forum for a while and when I did I find quite a number of interesting threads. The one that caught my eye though was the discussion on what people practise most, scales or rhythm. Being a favourite topic of mine, and if you have read previous posts on this blog you will propably guess where I stand on this subject!

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=69002

Away from the sax - Visualisation

Some time ago I started to notice a discrepancy between my ability to formulate harmonic ideas on the piano and that of the saxophone. I began to realise that one of the difficulties on sax was that unlike the piano or guitar, it is not a very visual instrument. By this a mean that due to the nature of keys or fret board, these instruments are very "colour coded" which aid in visualising harmonies. Discussing this with a friend of mine recently, he suggested trying to get the same principle from the sax by working without the instrument. He suggested working several times a day on visualising with the mind only, the things being worked on in practise. So far I have tried it only with scales and patterns, but already Ive noticed a big difference. If I practise a particular scale or pattern in my head several minutes before practise, I'm clearly able to work on it with a better feel and understanding, and achieve results much faster. Just as the fingers and lungs need warming up as does the brain. My next step will be to work this idea on particular tunes, as I feel my improvising on the sax would benefit from this "visual" aspect as well as the aural and mental side.

Joe Allard

Along with my reading of Dave Liebman's book "Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound" I have been studying the work of Joe Allard, influential and highly respected teacher of the sax and clarinet who amongst many others taught Dave Liebman and Micheal Brecker. Focused particularly on sound production that was "free of all unnecessary tension and capable of a great variety of tonal possibilities" Allard focused on the "development of the embouchure, proper use of the air, flexibility of the laryngeal and oral cavities, and one's own tonal imagination".* If like me you are a little late on this vital information, a good start is to check out the official website http://www.joeallard.org/. It has lots of information on his teaching style as well as interviews and comments from many of his former pupils.

*(from the website)

Jazz in India - Useful websites.

Here are a few links for web sites of bands and organisations involved in jazz and other music in India.

http://www.jazzwave.org/ - JAZZwave is providing a platform for the research and the development of Jazz and New Indian Fusion. They aim to create concert opportunities and cultural exchanges with the aim to promote improvised music in India.

http://www.myspace.com/emergencemusic - Myspace for Emergence, an acoustic Indo-Fusion band based in the international township of Auroville, India

http://www.holgerjetter.com/ - Website of Jazz violinist Holger Jetter, based in Auroville, India

www.myspace.com/urbanreflektions - Myspace for Urban Reflektions, jazz fusion group, lead by drummer and compser Debashish "debu" Banerji

Peter Magadini - Polyrhythms, The Musicians Guide

Ive just got hold of this book and it looks like a great method for studying Polyrhythms. Beginning with 6 against 4 (3 against 2) Magadini demonstrates how the basic pattern is put together both with written examples and a accompanying CD. He then develops this further with exercises that subdivide the top ratio, in this case the 6, into eighths, triplets and sixteenths. By the end of the chapter there are solos and other exercises that allow you to be comfortable with alternating between the different subdivisions. Once this has been completed one follows the same principle with 3 against 4 and 5 against 4. I have only just scratched the surface of this book, but so far it looks like a very good and complete method to studying these rhythms. My only complaint as someone who has difficulty in this area, is that while the method is very easy to understand, implementing it is not! I would have preferred a more gradual approach and a few more intermediate level exercises in the first few chapters, as the book quickly advances to some very challenging exercises. Furthermore the CD for my ear also has examples that are quite difficult to hear without slowing them down. In the end I resorted to programming the rhythms myself in a sequencer in order to really hear them well. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful book, and a must have if you want to improve in this area. You will need plenty of patience and discipline though!

Smooth Jazz Chennai

For a NDTV news clip of the smooth Jazz Christmas show in Chennai click below. Thanks Shyam! It was a great gig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjw5YO182aE

Invitation - Yes, it's finally done!

Ok, it took a while but it's ready. The new album features Matt Littlewood - Tenor sax and piano. Mishko M'Ba - Bass. Suresh Bascara - Drums and Holger Jetter - Guitar

You can contact me for a copy at saxindia@yahoo.co.in

Cover design by Leonard, Auroville

More polyrhythms

The "Methode de Batterie" series of books by Dante Agostini are well known by drummers as a comprehensive method for the kit. Check out volume IV for a number pages of polyrhythms that can also be used by other musicians. There are two part exercises that can be played between the hands. They start progressively with 16th and 8th notes, and then explore 2 against 3, and 3 against 4. Although I have not reached the end yet, I have found this a very systematic and practical method, which followed step by step helps to learn these rhythms thoroughly.

http://www.danteagostini.com/methodes/volumes.html

Why did I wait so long? - Developing your own Personal Sound

Don't wait as long a I did to read this book! I was aware for a long time of this great book by Dave Liebeman, but never got around to getting a copy. It's a gold mine of very valuable, not to mention absolutely vital information regarding tone production on the saxophone. It is well explained, includes diagrams, and has chapters on breathing, embouchure, articulation, mouthpieces, reeds and much more.

A preview from the publisher can be found here:

http://www.dornpub.com/BooksPDF/liebsnd.pdf

There is also a review on Dave Liebman's site here:

http://upbeat.com/lieb/Publications_Reviews/soundrev.htm

James Carter

I saw this hilarious article on Kelly Bucheger's Jazz pages. Its Kelly's account of the time when James Carter, sixteen and already an amazing tenor player joined the same big band him. This is really a great story and very funny too.

http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~bucheger/JamesCarterRuinedMyLife.html

Sax Embouchure

Ive been working on some changes with my sax embouchure recently, and while doing some research on the net, came across this thread on saxontheweb with pictures of famous players and their embouchures.

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=52352

There are many other articles on this subject, but this one by Pete Thomas was one the most useful I found.

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-embouchure.html

Free Stuff!

This link regarding free downloadable books was posted recently by charlie on rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz. There are mainly guitar books here, but it looks like there are interesting articles on jazz usable for other intruments.

http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/freebies.html

Sonny Rollins - Weaver of Dreams

Thanks Holger for putting me on to this fantastic Sonny Rollins clip on Youtube. An incredible display of presence and sound with so little fuss! Best for me though are the close ups of his hands and the way they portray such control and confidence over the instrument. A beautiful clip of a great player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4LBDbcCR-E&mode=related&search=

Saxophone Sound

Sax players are often looking for the perfect embouchure and set up. This article on Stan Getz was posted recently by steevemcbry on the saxontheweb forum:

http://www.du.edu/lamont/Getz.html


Here too is Dave Liebman's interesting article on the search for a perfect mouthpiece:

http://www.upbeat.com/lieb/Feature_Articles/nirvana.htm

Jazz Polyrhythms

This is probably the most useful page I have found on the internet in a while. This article by Ron Jones gives detailed explainations on the most commonly used and essential to learn polyrhythms in Jazz. It's very well explained and comes with pdf examples.

http://www.iaje.org/article.asp?ArticleID=267

Jazz in India - Tour 2007

Here is a clip from a recent concert in Auroville, and part of a jazz tour of India and Myanmar featuring Holger Jetter, Steve Rudolph, Mishko M'Ba and Suresh Bascara.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/492589/jazz_in_india/

The importance of Listening

If you ever doubted the importance of listening in the study of jazz, read this article by Tenor Saxophonist Bob Anram. Its a fascinating insight into the development of ones own creativity in jazz.

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51801