Herbie Hancock Quote

"A great teacher stimulates his students creativity so that they go out & find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock

I found this quote lurking somewhere online a while back. I like it.

Spring Listening

Sam Newsome: "Blue Soliloquy" (self release)
Newsome's solo soprano sax outing released in 2009.
Throughout The album Newsome incorporates techniques such as Multiphonics, Microtones, Slap tongue, and the Doppler effect.

I feel that the pieces are very arranged and perhaps a little more spontaneity would loosen things up a little. However, this highly organized manner of playing presets these techniques in a very approachable way for the uninitiated. The track lengths also helps -  of the 14 originals and a Monk tune, the majority fall in the 2 - 4 minute range ( with only two over 5 mins)
This is his second (of three) solo soprano albums - in time I will check out the others.

Trance Formation: "In Concert" (New Artists Records)
Connie Crothers (p) Ken Filiano (b) Andrea Wolper (v)  Don't expect your run-of-the-mill vocalist out front of a rhythm section here - Tranceformation are a collaborative trio performing eight free improvisations taken from two live performances in 2009/10 (a souvenir for me as I was at The Stone concert in 09... perhaps there's another post - live albums from gigs you attended?). Risks are taken, but never at the expense of the music or group sound - the three blend so well together resulting in pieces and an album that have wonderful continuity. I'm looking forward to hearing more from this exciting trio.  Recommended for those looking for more adventurous vocal recordings.

"Fo[u]r Alto: 4 Compositions by Frank Gratkowski" (Leo Records)

Saxophone quartet Four Alto playing Four Compositions For Four Alto Saxophones... oh, and the Anthony Braxton reference too. I think that covers the title.  The group is led by Frank Gratkowski and is rounded out with fellow German's Florian Bergmann, Benjamin Weidekamp & Christian Weidner.
I first heard this group in 2009 (fairly early in its life) during Hayden Chisholm's annual workshop in Greece. It took a little time but their first album was released at the end of 2012 (two other discs from Gratkowski were released at the same time). Microtonality looms large - you have been warned. I will post a bit more on this one later.


Miles Davis: "Kind of Blue" (Columbia) - see this entry.

Record Store Day

As you may have heard Saturday April 20 was Record Store Day. I took it pretty easy and only went to the Jazz Record Mart. I timed my run to coincide with the in-store performance of Nick Mazzarella (as) Devin Hoff (b) & Mike Reed (d).

Nice to see a decent crowd in the store (the pics below are from after the trio's set and the crowd had thinned a bit). It was quite pleasant strolling the aisles accompanied by a live band.

I picked up two solo saxophone albums - Anthony Braxton's classic "For Alto" (Delmark 1969) - not sure why it has taken this long for me to get it - and Evan Parker's "Chicago Solo" (Okka Disc 1995) - Parker's first album dedicated to solo tenor (after many solo soprano albums).

Easing Back Into It

This week I have been getting back into regular practice. Due to tendonitis, the last few weeks have been quite sporadic. Trying to keep everything as loose as possible whilst playing - awareness. Following each session I have been massaging my hand and forearm. Doctors orders were to keep sessions brief. Have been doing each thing (singing & mouthpiece ex. aside) for about 5 mins each. Anyway here's a run down:

Monday:
Singing: Billie Holiday's "Sun Showers"
30mins playing:
Starting with air letting held note emerge then fading out to air
5ths against drone
playing/singing D major slowly playing bach inv 1 (D)
mouthpiece only - d major

Tuesday:
Singing: "Sun Showers"
Mouthpieces exercises: D Major signing and playing with drone. Stuck at it longer than normal today.
20mins playing:
Playing with done (D): Long Tones (5ths) D major scale 60 met.
Overtones: "letting it fall" (aka descending octaves without octave key)
Bach Invention 1 - slowly with metronome

Wednesday:
Singing: "Sun Showers"
Mouthpiece Exercises: with drone... felt bottom end open up a bit today
15mins playing: (morning)
Overtones: "Letting it Fall"
Scales/long tones: D Major with drone. Held notes
Tone Tracks: tone matching with recording (I'll probably write more on this later)

Planned on doing more in the afternoon but following a mammoth dish washing effort my shoulder advised me otherwise..... Lesson - don't let the dishes build up/practice before dishes!

Thursday:

Singing: "Sun Showers" - I've been focusing on Billie Holiday's vocal today I finished off singing with Lester Youngs solo too.

Mouthpiece exercises: warmed up a couple of reeds while playing D Major Scale and chord

17 mins playing:

Overtones: Letting it Fall - chromatically F thru Bb. Was feeling good so I worked my way up and ended with chromatically C thru Bb. Doesn't take long and is a great starting place.

Scales: D Major with and without drone. Quarter notes at 40 and 60bpm. Also fooled around a bit with playing 4 over 3.
Packed up (and wrote these notes) listening to Doha.

Had a second session in the afternoon

More Mouthpiece Exercises (great warm up)
Breaking in some reeds
Then moved onto working slowly on Bach's Invention #1 for about 15mins

Friday:
Singing: "Sun Showers"
Mouthpiece Exercises: playing against a drone (breaking in a couple of reeds)
15mins playing
Scales: D Major against drone - 60 bpm alternating quarter notes and 4 over 3

Bach Invention #1 - 60 bpm and then finished off with 100bpm drum metronome cd
Packed up listening to "Sun Showers" on loop

More mouthpiece exercises for a warm up.
15mins playing
Overtones: Letting it Fall and Tone Matching
Étude: worked on one of the Lacour Messiaen Etudes  - I had been working through some of these earlier in the year. Was nice to get back into it.

All in all it has been nice getting back in to some regular work on the horn. The plan now is to slowly increase the time each day.

Ned Rothenberg Solo

Last week Ned Rothenberg was in town performing and recording with James Falzone's "Renga Ensemble" - thankfully there was time for a Saturday afternoon solo concert.
Performing on Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, and Shakuhachi the set at Corbett vs Dempsey flew by - one piece on each horn and an encore on clarinet. I have only recently started getting into his work in the last 6-7 months - via some of his solo albums. I really enjoyed his playing here and with the Renga Ensemble (in fact for me, he was the standout in the group).

For the sax nerds..... his alto has been modified (or retro-fitted, if you like) - it now has two octave mechanisms (like the original saxes had) allowing him to by-pass the auto opening and closing of the upper and lower vents. Without going into much detail he said it helps with some of the techniques he uses. For some reason I didn't ask who did the modification.

James Falzone's Renga Ensemble

L-R Vandermark, Stein, Rothenber, Goldberg, Jackson, Falzone

The Renga Ensemble made its debut last week. An all reed group conceived and led by clarinetist James Falzone. I got to two of the three performances - Wednesday night at The Hideout and Thursday at the Chicago Cultural Center (later that night they played at Elastic but as much as I wanted to go I thought it was better for me to stay at home and fight off the cold I had picked up).
All of the pieces were written by Falzone and each member had a feature piece. Alongside some of Chicago's finest, Falzone also drew on talents from San Francisco (Goldberg) & NYC (Rothenberg)...

James Falzone

Anyway, the full line up was:
James Falzone (Clarinet, Eb Clarinet)
Keefe Jackson (Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet)
Ben Goldberg (Clarinet, Contraalto clarinet)
Ned Rothenberg (Alto Sax, Clarinet)
Jason Stein (Bass Clarinet)
Ken Vandermark (Bari Sax, Bass Clarinet, Clarinet)

The instrumentation ranged from 6 clarinets through to 3 clarinets & 3 saxes with pretty much every combination in between. A very enjoyable couple of performances -  dynamic with sustained interest throughout. Hopefully it's not a one-off and they are able to get together and develop their group sound. Also, it would be interesting to hear compositions from the rest of the ensemble. The group spent Friday in the studio so keep your ears peeled for a future release.

Chicago Cultural Center April 11 2013

David Liebman Masterclass

Last weekend PM Woodwind hosted a master class with David Liebman. A good turn out - pretty much a full house - but (surprisingly for me) less than at the Ernie Watts master class late last year.

Mouthpiece Exercises!!

He spoke about touring as a single and playing with local pick up rhythm sections (as he did the previous night at the Green Mill) and finding common ground with musicians around the world via the jazz reportoire that he broke into two categories: Standards (Great American Songbook/Broadway Tunes etc) & Jazz Standards (works by Miles, Coltrane, Monk et al).  He also spoke about the legacy of the jazz masters and the STANDARD they set when playing the standards - a nice point. 

When the conversation turned to the saxophone the emphasis was on sound. No surprises there for those of us famlilar with Liebman's books and DVDs. Demonstrations of various long tone, overtone, mouthpiece, and oral cavity exercises that Dave came to via Joe Allard's teachings. I explored many of these during my time studying with Richard Tabnik - another saxophonists profoundly influenced by the teachings of Allard. I find working on tone a lot of fun most of the time - The exercises Richard shared with me have stayed part of my ongoing work. They will be with me as I ease back in to regular practice. 


It made a change to hear (and see) someone demonstrating overtones and mouthpieces exercises on soprano - Dave.... you don't need to be so apologetic about sounds emminating from the soprano during these exercises!

Earlier in the year I got up close up view of Sam Newsome playing at smalls however some of the nuance was lost in amongst the quartet. Sunday was a different story  - up close (front row) with his soprano just a few inches away, unaccompanied, everything was clear and present.

He's quite the storyteller too.... the crowd favorite being a recollection from his early days when he headed to Philly and sat in with Rahsaan Roland Kirk's group.... "All The Things You Are, first note is F#, 1,2,1,2,3,4....."