If you don’t know who Dan Higgins is, you have heard him…..in movies, on TV soundtracks, albums, etc. He’s everywhere. Check him out.
Year: 2010
I Heart Jazz – Allen Mezquida
Kind cool. Some bad language in it
Eubanks Global Citizen Theme
Václav Greif just finished transcribing a Dave Holland Quintet song, Eubanks Global Citizen theme off the album Not For Nothin’. No transcribed solos, just the chart. Good stuff. Check it out.
Eubanks Global Citizen Theme (80.4 KiB, 112 hits)
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Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 – Mac
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 140 (playing double time).
- For RealTracks, many Jazz comping styles now play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered, instead of “jazzing them up” to 7ths chords (e.g. Guitar: Freddie, Wes Piano: Some Jazz. All Stride, Rehearsal). If you prefer this “the old way”, where triads are automatically “jazzed up” when comping using Jazz RealTracks, then you can set the Prefs-Realtracks settings option to force 7ths for triads.
Plus, you get a bunch more RealTracks. One of the Paks comes with some B3, and other has some excellent Jazz Guitar.
Is it worth the money? Yes, I think so. It is a great tool for musicians who want to practice 50 choruses of soloing…..at whatever speed……in whatever style……in whatever key. Or perhaps you’ve like to figure out some chords for a song you were working on? Done. BinaB can help you there. Or maybe figure out what chords were played in a song? Yep, it can help you there too. So many uses for this program…..it should really be a REQUIREMENT for a Musician to own it.
UPDATE: A few of the RealTrack Saxophone tracks are Eric Marienthal. How cool is that???
The Search for Nirvana – A Perfect Mouthpiece!
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 open, not too closed, not to dark and not too bright. Akin to Goldilocks and her porridge.
I think they sorta missed the point about “vintage”. Most all those guys were playing on rather new horns in that time period. Coleman Hawkins wasn’t playing on a 1910’s tenor when he was dishing out Body and Soul in 1939? Coltrane’s horn before he died was a Mark VI serial number 125571, dated 1965. Not the horn he used to record Giant Steps (whatever happened to that horn?). Most of these guys had new or new-ish horns. Not “vintage” in their day. Who’s to say that if Yamaha had been making instruments when Coltrane was alive that Coltrane wouldn’t have played one? And mouthpieces…..were there that many choices back then? I mean, nowadays we have hundreds of people and companies making and modifying mouthpieces. Back in the 1960s? I dunno, but I’d be surprised if the number was a two digit number. And earlier…..I’d be surprised if it was more than a couple.
Point is I guess, get something that is good, but not so wide open that you can park a truck in it, and not something so small that you’d have to find the opening with an electron microscope. Stick with it. Learn it. And having a good horn will help (Mark VI optional).
Jason Robert Brown vs. SheetMusic Trader
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
Rick Margitza At The Detriot Jazz Festical 1998
Ok, kind of old, but it seems it just made it up on YouTube. Great playing.
More To Live For
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.
Aerophone Gallery
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/
Jason Marsalis vs. JNI
I agree with this. I’ve never heard of Jazz Nerds International (JNI)…..
Peterson iStrobe is now $0.99
By far my favorite tuner App, now for a buck.
“For a limited time, we have reduced our price on iStroboSoft to 99 cents! No promotion code needed. Visit the App Store to purchase.
Peterson Strobe Tuners popular StroboSoft tuning application for the iPod touch and iPhone. iStroboSoft™ offers the unmatched accuracy of a mechanical strobe tuner for the highest degree of precision available in a software tuning application.
Plug in and tune your electrics and acoustics quickly and easily with 1/10th cent accuracy. (External mic required for iPod touch.)
Peterson Tuners has offered tuning solutions for over 60 years and is the only company specializing in hardware and software tuning products for all levels of musicians.”
Dood Blows $5760 on an Eigenharp
Oh come on, a stand created by K&M? It’s a Bass Clarinet/Bassoon Stand guy. Been around forever. And they include a BACKPACK!?!? Wow, I’m sold.
Seriously though, why? You need to take the “backpack”, the stand, a real laptop, and then the actual Eigenharp to a gig. Oh, plus an amp. So……why didn’t they include a cart? Or a small truck for it?
Well, the guy seems happy…..I guess that is all that matters. When they come out with one that doesn’t need all that crap with it, and costs about 1/2 as much, call me.
Bill Trimble Dies
I’m really late in finding out about this, but Bay Area saxophonist William Trimble died on February 22nd after having a heart attack the day before. Bill was the saxophone teacher for the first 3 years of my schooling at Cal State Hayward. Thought I never really got along with him he did enlighten me on a lot of classical saxophone literature and techniques.
I have mixed feelings about him. On one hand, he was an amazing saxophonist in his genre. On the other hand, he treated CSUH saxophone students as second rate, generally missing half of the lessons we were supposed to get each quarter and not making them up. That eventually lead a bulk of the students to take our grieves to the department chair and us getting a saxophone teacher who would actually show up when we had lessons scheduled (Dann Zinn). Or show up for our recitals. Not that I hold a grudge, in fact, it was a good thing, as it lead me to talk more clarinet lessons and flute lessons. So, it all worked out. And it worked out for him too. He liked San Jose State better (closer to Aptos).
Regardless, he was taken too early. My best wishes to him and his family.
iBrecker is Back
Yup, seems like it got resurrected. Good stuff. Check it out. iBrecker
iPad Steel Drums
Ok, I’m still waiting for the Coltrane or Brecker App…..but this is kind of cool.