Back in August of 2007 and January of 2008, a Big Band that I play in recorded two live performances for a “Demo CD”. Well, in the 2 some years since we made the two recordings, the project has become a full-blown album that is currently playing on Jazz Radio stations and available on the [Continue]

Here are the ingredients of a great album and recording: 1. Great songs….Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon…..check 2. Good arrangements of said songs…..check 3. Great players…..check 4. Record everything live, with a single microphone and no digital “wizardary” (not Pro Tools *gasp*)…..check The [Continue]

Greg Fishman has been at it again. This time, he has come out with yet another book of Jazz Etudes. Again, he has named each Etude after a street in Chicago. I’ll just take Greg’s books in lieu of a tourist map if I ever visit Chicago. Really. I believe he’s covered every major street [Continue]

Two related items I finished recently. The first is a very interesting CD, Marcel Tabuteau’s Lessons, which Tabuteau himself explains his phrasing system. Well, it is more than that, it is lessons on music from a great master. It was started in August of 1965, using a tape recorder in Tabuteau’s apartment, and abruptly finished [Continue]

Jim Snidero has added another volume to his Jazz Conception series. Intermediate Jazz Conception features 15 songs based on chord changes to “St. Thomas”, “On Green Dolphin Street”, “Confirmation”, “Well You Needn’t” and others. The Alto version features Jim Snidero (as do all the other Alto [Continue]

I just picked up a copy of Tim Ries “The Rolling Stones Project”. I have to say, this is probably the best CD I’ve bought in 2005. I can’t think of another CD that I bought in 2005 that was better. Seriously, I think the industry needs to stop doing American Idol and other cheese [Continue]

Greg Fishman has released a great new book titled Jazz Saxophone Etudes. What sets this book apart from others is the addition of two CDs, one for Alto and one for Tenor. You use the same etude for both instruments. So, you don’t have to deal with bad transposition jobs that you find in say, [Continue]

The Art Of Improvisation by Bob Taylor is $23 well spent. It contains over 400 pages well thought out, insightful, and well explained improvisation concepts all accessible via PDF on the CD-ROM. The PDFs include hyperlinks to musical examples, so you can hear things right away, and not have to cue up a track on [Continue]

An adult student of mine showed up to a lesson with this book, Jazz & Blues Playalong Solos for Alto Sax. It is a good book for the price featuring 14 classic jazz songs, such as “Desifinado”, “Take the ‘A’ Train”, and “Satin Doll”. The only issue I have with this book is that they [Continue]

Being an insomanic, I listen to a lot of radio or watch a lot of TV. I happened to be driving when I heard on KCBS some story about a first CD release by a Nashville saxophonist named Mark Douthit. So I went on KCBS‘s website and of course could not find anything about him. [Continue]

I just got around to listening to Michael Brecker’s new album, “Nearness of You – The Ballad Book”. It features Michael on Tenor Saxophone, Pat Metheny on Guitars, Herbie Hancock on Piano, Charlie Haden on Bass, James Taylor on Vocals and Jack DeJohnette on Drums. The personnel on this CD alone should warrant it in [Continue]

seer writes “Don’t know if everyone noticed but Michael Brecker has a new album coming out which will be shipping on June 19th. It is entitled Nearness of You: The Ballad Book and promises an all star cast of Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and James Taylor. That is quite a rythm [Continue]

ABC News has an interesting article about Sony’s upcoming Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD). SACD boosts the sampling frequency to a whopping 2.82 Mhz (IE: It samples a sound wave 2,822,400 times a second) which is about 64 times that of current CDs. Sony is planning on have SACD built into all it’s upcomming Digital [Continue]