But with larger horns, I have seen older players with serious issues.  Hamiet Bliuett of the World Saxophone Quartet now uses a stand to hold up his baritone saxophone.  Even the tenor sax can take a toll on your body.

There are many types of neck straps and harnesses and the designs make a difference.  Some are basically just a string.  In terms of physics, these straps create much more pressure on your neck since the weight is distributed over a very small area.  The neotech straps are wider and made out of a material similar to a wet suit.  Thus they distribute the weight a bit better and are more comfortable.  I have one of them that I used to use.

As far as neck straps go, neotech is good, but I moved to an actual harness when I play.  It doesn’t look quite as ‘cool’ but I play quite a bit and would rather not develop any problems.

My harness doesn’t have any padding and I bought it from the woodwind catalog years ago.  I use it whenever I practice and sometimes when I perform.

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I had wanted to see Maceo Parker for a long time. Had been listening to him since I was eight years old when I got the CD ‘Roots Revisited’ which is more jazz than most of his music. Maceo Parker was a sideman with James Brown and others for a while, but has been doing his own thing. He seems to be playing in Europe a lot. I bought his CD ‘Roots and Grooves’ later that day.

George Young was great. He played a set of jazz including tunes like ‘Take the A Train.’ The audience really loved his music, and he has quite a local following since he lives here too.

Christian McBride’s quintet was amazing. He had bass, drums, sax, vibes, and piano. He told us about how the drummer used to play with Freddie Hubbard and that was how he got introduced. The group played more of a straight-ahead bebop style. They really played well together.

Anat Cohen mostly played jazz clarinet and a little tenor sax. I had never heard of her, but she sounded great.

Joshua Redman and Brian Blade together and Brian Blade also played with his own group later on. Hadn’t seen him live before, he played some cool stuff. Brian Blade picks up on everything the other musicians are playing and responds really well.

The Terrance Blanchard group also sounded really good. He had some jokes about the sax player from Tucson, Arizona. He called him the president, treasurer, etc of the Tucson jazz society. Basically because there isn’t much jazz in Tucson. During the set, Herbie Hancock was sitting in the room and went up to play with the group on the last song.

The Next Generation Band, led by Paul Contos, sounded great. They played this song called ‘The Chicken’ which featured the saxophone section. The five sax players got up one by one and were improvising and then Paul joined in on soprano.

Tom Scott did a tribute to Cannonball Adderley and put a new twist on some of those songs. He also had a vocalist that sounded pretty good.

Maria Schneider did her thing with her jazz orchestra. Her grammy winning tenor sax player played some crazy riffs.

Spencer Day is a vocalist who sang some of his newer songs. Hadn’t heard from him before, but he sounded good. The band really grooved well together. The bass player and guitar player would also join him on vocal harmonies at points.

Kurt Elling was the last act I saw and was amazing. He had Ernie Watts on saxophone. Elling puts on a great show, very entertaining. Jamie Cullum came out for a surprise duet performance too.

Here’s another Review of the Monterey Jazz Festival that I found. They saw a few of the same musicians that I did, but also some other parts.

George Young told us about how important it is to practice classical music, even if it’s not your main style. So I got the second volume of Rubanks and a book of 48 studies for Oboe or Saxophone. I wanted to start on something a little simpler than Bozza’s Aria to begin with.

The Rubanks books for saxophone are separated into two volumes with each having music in half the keys (both major and minor). The second volume is a bit more advanced, but really they work together.

The books include scale exercises, finger “busters,” solo pieces, duets, and studies on ornamentation. There is one version of the book for all saxophones so the material fits within the range of the instrument.

Rubank Advanced Method - Saxophone Vol.1 Written by Himie Voxman, Wm Gower. Instructional book for tenor saxophone. 72 pages. See more info…

Rubank Advanced Method - Volume 2 (Saxophone)Written by Himie Voxman. Instructional book for saxophone. Series: Hal Leonard Instrumental Methods. 80 pages. See more info…

On Friday night George Young is playing at 6:30 at the Garden Stage, so I’ll be there.  Will definitely see Joshua Redman and Maceo Parker too.  Want to check out David Sanchez and Maria Schneider too.  I hear Maria Schneider’s big band at the Reno Jazz Festival one year and they sounded good.

The music is played throughout the Monterey Fairgrounds outisde at the Arena/Jimmy Lyons Stage, the Garden Stage and the Courtyard Stage. The Night Club/Bill Berry Stage, Dizzy’s Den, the Jazz Theater and the Coffee House Gallery are indoor venues on the grounds.

Tickets are $35 for Friday night and $45 for Saturday and Sunday, but the price goes up tomorrow (September 19).

You can find out more at the official website.

Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey, CA

David Feder and his band Salagua-Azul always wanted to get into big music festivals.  They had been performing for years, and doing OK, but the agents that book music festivals would never give them a chance.

At a show, a drunk fan said, inbetween songs, “You know what?  You guys are HILLBILLY FLAMENCO!”  The crowd laughed, and so did the band.  They joked about it again on stage that night, and again on the drive home.

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photo credit: justgrimes
photo credit: Sammis Co

The next day they started to notice that they all STILL remembered those two words, “hillbilly flamenco”.  It was funny, but described their music well.   The crowd liked it.  They decided to use it more often.

They started telling the audience, each time they played, “If you are wondering what kind of music this is, this is hillbilly flamenco!”  And the end of the show, they’d ask the audience, “And when you tell your friends what kind of music you heard tonight, what kind of music is it?”  The crowd would say, “HILLBILLY FLAMENCO!”

And believe it or not… it worked!  People started telling their friends about this band, because it was so easy (and fun) to describe.

And then, one day, they were talking to one of those booking agents who books festivals, and told him, “This music is perfect for your festivals.  This is hillbilly flamenco!”  The booking agent laughed and said, “Ok - I’ve GOT to hear this!”

Now David Feder and his band are playing the festivals they always dreamed of.  He told me his career took a definite turn the day they started using those two words to describe their music.
–
Derek Sivers
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You can get reeds, mouthpieces, and other equipment you need from the
Woodwind and Brasswind

Artist Song Name Composer Composition Instrument

Rubank Method is a series that ranges from beginning to advanced. It includes scale exercises, fingering challenges, classical melodies, and other exercises.

Rubank Elementary Method Saxophone
Rubank Intermediate Method Saxophone
Rubank Advanced Method - Saxophone Vol.1
Rubank Advanced Method - Volume 2 (Saxophone)

I have the Advanced Studies volumes 1 & 2 for saxophone and used the advanced book for clarinet.

You should definitely haveThe Jazz Theory Book.

As James Moody says, “The Jazz Theory Book should be in every musician’s library regardless of the level of their ability.” As author Mark Levine says himself,
“A great jazz solo consists of:
1% magic
99% stuff that is
Explainable
Analyzable
Categorizable
Doable”

You’re on your own for the magic bit, but his book will help you with the 99% part.

And while The Jazz Theory Book is great, Mark Levine is a piano player and for saxophone specific issues the Art Of Saxophone Playing can help. But it can be slightly dry.

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can’t practice to attain wisdom.
-Herbie Hancock

You can practice to learn a technique, but I’m more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.
-Herbie Hancock

So Charlie Parker and John Coltrane get the top two spots. Makes sense. The other players on the list certainly sound great as well. Who do you think should also rank in the top tiers?

A few more contenders I would add to the list of possibilities would be-

Coleman Hawkins
Stanley Turrentine
King Curtis
Joe Henderson
Dexter Gordon
Paul Desmond
Hank Mobley
Eddie Harris
Wayne Shorter
Sonny Rollins

It’s somewhat a question of taste. Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were pioneers of bebop though.

Another question might be who you think the greatest living saxophone player is.

Jazz- Patterns For Improvisation By Oliver Nelson, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook - E-flat, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook - B-flat Basic Aebersold Play-Alongs- Volume 54 - Maiden Voyage,

The Aebersold books are great fun to play with and are useful in learning tunes. They range in style and difficulty across over one hundred books.

The Charlie Parker Omnibook gives you many melodies and the improvisational genius of Parker in a single book.

Even if you mostly play jazz or another style, being comfortable with classical music will add something to your playing- specifically technique, precision, and a different set of musical ideas you can draw upon. Just listen to Bill Evans to hear the classical influence.

Intermediate/Advanced Aebersolds- Volume 64 - Salsa Latin Jazz, Volume 16 - Turnarounds, Cycles & ii/V7s

If you play some classical music or even if you mostly play jazz, it can be beneficial to study from the classical perspective.

Rubank Method is a series that ranges from beginning to advanced. It includes scale exercises, fingering challenges, classical melodies, and other exercises.

Rubank Elementary Method Saxophone
Rubank Intermediate Method Saxophone
Rubank Advanced Method - Saxophone Vol.1
Rubank Advanced Method - Volume 2 (Saxophone)
You should definitely haveThe Jazz Theory Book.

As James Moody says, “The Jazz Theory Book should be in every musician’s library regardless of the level of their ability.” As author Mark Levine says himself,
“A great jazz solo consists of:
1% magic
99% stuff that is
Explainable
Analyzable
Categorizable
Doable”

You’re on your own for the magic bit, but his book will help you with the 99% part. And while The Jazz Theory Book is great, Mark Levine is a piano player and for saxophone specific issues the Art Of Saxophone Playing can help. It can be a bit dry though.

Enharmonic equivalents, such as G# sounding the same as A flat, have the same pitch, but are written differently. They show relationships and one may be easier to read or think about than another.

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George Young

I went to Carmel this week for a master class by George Young.  The week started off with a concert on Monday night.  George played classical music for the first set and then jazz for the second.

Talking about his piece “For Diz” written for Dizzy Gillespie and somewhat based on ‘A Night in Tunisia’ he said that Dizzy Gillespie was in the audience one night when he played it and then came up to him after the show.  Dizzy gave George a hug and a kiss on the cheek and called him a “greasy *&$# $*&@.”  He didn’t understand this for a long time, but then was told many years later that it really was a great compliment.

Throughout the week I learned tons of things about the saxophone and playing music.  Heard some more great stories too.