Well, seems like the new version of iTunes has some social functions now. Though Ping is newly born, some people, like eternal Apple hater Peter Kirn seem to have already written it off. That is a huge mistake. Kirn also has said that the iPad is a failure as well. Heck, he thinks that because [Continue]

I came across this site which is selling used Silk Neck Ties as swabs. Kind of interesting. Might be a good DIY project. Though I dunno how you’d cram a tie through an oboe? And silk swabs for clarinet are and saxophone are well under $10. [Continue]

Sad news “Leon Breeden, the longtime director of jazz studies at the University of North Texas, who half a century ago transformed the program from a clandestine enterprise into the international Mecca for jazz training it remains today, died on Wednesday in Dallas. He was 88.” My college band got to do a concert with [Continue]

Hey, I just wanted to share a link that’s been helpful to me. http://www.myguitarsolo.com/jazz_comp.htm It contains midi files with a standard IIm – V7 – Imaj7 progression (among others), and it circulates through all the scales on the instrument. I think it lasts about 5-10 minutes, and it is a work-out! The greatest thing is [Continue]

Seems Wendy’s kids menu toy, in conjunction with “America’s Got Talent”, has a Saxazoo instrument with it. I don’t think it’s going to create a huge demand for playing the real thing though…. [Continue]

Got an old EWI? Yes? Then check this out: “The META-EWI is a modified EWI (Akai’s Electric Wind Instrument) to which was added a whole new set of controllers based on sensor technologies, specifically eight continuous controllers and 16 digital switches. These clearly succeed at stretching the expressiveness and the range of musical [Continue]

Kind cool. Some bad language in it [Continue]

PGMusic just released Band In A Box 2010.5 for the Mac. Improvements? Yes, several. Here are a few that I think are noteworthy: Styles can now be made that are set to use Half-Time and Double-Time RealTracks. For example, you can make a Jazz Ballad style (tempo 65) that uses a Sax Soloist at tempo [Continue]

Dave Liebman has an article up by Tom Alexander (with Dave Liebman) about searching for the perfect mouthpiece. On a cursory reading of this, one might take away that Links are the key to unlock your inner saxophone Budda. However, I think the point of the article is that one should pick something not to [Continue]

Adam Savage of Mythbusters tweeted this blog entry of a exchange between composer/artist Jason Robert Brown and someone who was trading his music. Very interesting discussion [Continue]

More To Live For is a promo (I think) site for a film that will, it seems, feature some documentary footage of Michael Brecker’s struggles with Cancer. Check it out. [Continue]

I’m not exactly sure what this site is, but they have up some interesting photos of old saxes and stuff. http://www.aerophone.de/ [Continue]

Yup, seems like it got resurrected. Good stuff. Check it out. iBrecker [Continue]

There are lots of very interesting Apps coming out for the iPad. One that has come out for musicians is MusicReader for the iPad. While the iPad App is free, the software to get files into the program costs anywhere from $59 to $99. Outrageous? Damn right. Seriously, this is highway robbery. A more reasonable [Continue]

Hal Leonard is selling a CD set of backgrounds to ALL the songs in the Real Book Vol. 1. For about $100, you get 12 CDs of piano, bass and drums background that range in time from about 2 1/2 minutes to 6. Depends on the song. A couple of songs, like Wave, have guitar [Continue]