Very cool video from the Steve Allen show where three of his saxophonists play ONE saxophone.
Here is the video (embedding was disabled)
Year: 2013
West Side Story Medley
Here is an arrangement/transcription I did a while back. I won’t take ALL the credit for this, as there is a version floating around the internet that this is based on. But that arrangement had problems, and I fixed it. This is based on the version that is on the “Best Of Buddy Rich” album. Buddy Rich never really played any of his songs the same every time, and some versions of this are faster or have some variations. I like the one on the Best of album the most, so I tried to pretty much fix up the version I found to match that. One of my favorite Buddy Rich big band songs.
West Side Story Medley (2.0 MiB, 243 hits)
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UPDATEThere was a slight error in the piece. The beginning at A should have been 12 bars and the double bar was in the wrong place. A minor issue, but I deleted the old one and made a new version that should completely match up with the Buddy Rich album version (the only thing that was off was the beginning thing)
UPDATEUgh, so I fixed that, but then the double time moved. The double time has been moved a bar later than it was. Simple fix to a simple problem.
Sheet Of The Week – A Thousand Years (Christina Perri)
I believe this was from Twilight?
A Thousand Years by Christina Perri for Eb Instruments (86.6 KiB, 136 hits)
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A Thousand Years by Christina Perri for Bb Instruments (86.0 KiB, 92 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – Never Gonna Leave This Bed (Maroon 5)
Yup, another Maroon 5 song.
Never Gonna Leave This Bed by Maroon 5 for Eb Instruments (66.0 KiB, 75 hits)
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Never Gonna Leave This Bed by Maroon 5 for Bb Instruments (66.3 KiB, 44 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Kiwi (Maroon 5)
Another by Maroon 5.
Kiwi by Maroon 5 for Eb Instruments (65.7 KiB, 34 hits)
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Kiwi by Maroon 5 for Bb Instruments (63.5 KiB, 34 hits)
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2013 NAMM Oddities
Barry Wood has updated his NAMM Oddities page from this year’s NAMM show. NAMM is a trade show that happens around the beginning of the year for music related items.
Some saxophone related items are here:
Instrument Care Apparel. I guess this appeals to people? I think its a waste of money but whatever…
It’s BAAAACK. Yes, the Vibrato Plastic Saxophone had a NAMM display this year. Though I had a post of it way back in May of 2011, two years later they are finally at NAMM. Whoohoo. So another two or so years until there is an actual shipping product?
Not to be out done in the Polycarbonate playhouse, NUVO has a line of plastic flutes and clarinets. Joy to the world.
Selmer Adds Yet ANOTHER Line Of Saxophones……Do We Need Yet Another Line?
I came across this today.
Not sure if this is supposed to be another PRO line of instruments, or maybe an intermediate line? Selmer USA is NOT known for PRO horns. Looks kind of cheap to me.
Sheet Of The Week – Titanium (David Guetta)
Sorry, been busy and haven’t posted anything in a while. Here is one you all probably have heard.
Titanium by David Guetta for Eb Instruments (66.1 KiB, 228 hits)
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Titanium by David Guetta for Bb Instruments (69.0 KiB, 103 hits)
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Report: Saxophone Still Ok Vehicle For Self Expression
Frank Sumares Dies
I received an email today saying that the great Frank Sumares, or as most people called him “Uncle Frank” or “Uncafunk” died of Cancer today.
He was suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a very short time ago, like less than two weeks. The doctors were saying that he had 6-8 months, then revised it to 2-3 months, and now…..he’s gone.
I remember Frank when I would play in the Chabot Jazz band. He would have his signature dark glasses on and just come in and kick some musical ass. One of the best directors I’ve ever had. Great guy. Rest in Peace man.
Concord Music Group Sold To Investor Group
From eJazzNews:
Concord Music Group is very pleased to announce that a definitive agreement has been reached with Wood Creek Capital Management LLC to purchase Concord from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. The acquisition is being made on behalf of funds which Wood Creek advises, and an individual investor group that includes members of Concord’s senior management and industry veterans Steve Smith and Scott Pascucci. The transaction is expected to close within a few days.
Didn’t even know there was a deal in the works. I guess it is good news?
The Importance of Backups
For several years now, I have been storing my digital assets on a RAID5 system. The first system was a box I build from old PC parts and a raid controller. It held a whopping 1 terabyte in storage. It was loud.
The second system was a ReadyNAS NV. This was a little shoebox size computer that held 4 drives. It worked remarkably well, even when I swapped out the original 250 gig drives with 1 terabyte drives (to make my total storage close to 3 terabytes). Great little unit, but it was slow (650mhz processor).
Last year I upgraded to a Synology DS1512. The first unit I got had a serious firmware issue, and they had to send me a new unit. It had been running flawlessly until about two weeks ago. Then, a drive failed….
No big deal. I had two drives fail on the readynas unit. You simply take up the disk, put in a new one, and it rebuilds itself…..no data lost. The synology unit should be the same. So, I proceeded to go on amazon and order a new drive…..then the improbable happened……a second drive failed.
Now, RAID5 is designed to handle one drive dying, not two. Technically, the drive didn’t completely die, the system map got screwed up somehow. Basically, the unit crashed miserably, and probably was not recoverable (didn’t even boot)
Luckily, over the summer, I got a two disk synology unit, and had been remotely syncing changes from the DS1512 to it. Plus I had also been using the readynas nv as a backup as well. So, I didn’t lose nearly 3 terabytes of songs, movies, books, and recordings.
Now, you probably don’t have a NAS. But you probably have a computer. You need to backup files now. Get a hard drive and use time machine on the Mac or whatever similar program exists for windows. Backup. Seriously consider getting a CrashPlan or similar service account.
You can never have too many backups.
Sheet Of The Week – Arms (Christina Perri)
Another Christina Perri song.
Arms by Christina Perri for Eb Instruments (84.2 KiB, 75 hits)
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Arms by Christina Perri for Bb Instruments (87.0 KiB, 52 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Losing My Mind (Maroon 5)
Another by Maroon 5
Losing My Mind by Maroon 5 for Eb Instruments (81.9 KiB, 61 hits)
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Losing My Mind by Maroon 5 for Bb Instruments (82.5 KiB, 43 hits)
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Indispensable Finale Tools
I have been a LONG time user of Finale. Since…..geeze, Finale 2 something (I think I have the floppy disks it came on for my Mac Quadra 660AV). Since there seems to be a new influx of life into MakeMusic, it is time to revisit why it is such an awesome program compared to the competition. I mean, there are reasons like the endless flexibility the program allows you in inputing your music, tweaking the output, etc. No, what really sets it apart are the plugins.
The first plugin that is absolutely necessary for anyone who uses Finale is TGTools. I use this daily. It has so many useful features. It is well worth the price I paid for it.
The second set of plugins are from Jari Williamsson that are available on the FinaleTips.nu site. His latest plugin, JW Accidentals, is amazing. Have needed something like this for a long time.
So check them out. Finale is going places……Sibelius? No so much…..