From the Smithsonian Magazine:

“In August of 1955, Chan Parker, the widow of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker, was in a rowboat in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, trying to save the legacy of the love of her life.

Roiling flood waters were rising in the wake of Hurricane Diane, and Parker, just months after the death of one of the fathers of bebop, was determined to get the important things out as water threatened their house located on a peninsula in Lumberville.”

Ok, yeah…..not really doing these weekly anymore (too busy), but here is the latest from Maroon 5. Enjoy.

  Memories by Maroon 5 for Eb Instruments (142.8 KiB, 11 hits)
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  Memories by Maroon 5 for Bb Instruments (142.9 KiB, 7 hits)
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There are a lot of guys playing pop songs on youtube. This one is a good one.

Last night’s SNL had Taylor Swift teaming up with Lenny Pickett to perform “False God”. Enjoy

“Technology is changing the very nature of not just music consumption but how music is written and produced. People need to know that they’re being both manipulated by music technology and missing out on a full music experience. Alan Cross shares the subtleties of today’s music delivery systems and questions what it means for the future of music. “

Saxophonist Yanick Coderre has a nice project mixing saxophone and electronics happening. A lot more interesting than a lot of guys who play with like Aebersold type backgrounds doing the same old tired “standards”.

From this article a while ago that ran on The Guardian:

“The multimillion dollar brain training industry is under attack. In October 2014, a group of over 100 eminent neuroscientists and psychologists wrote an open letter warning that “claims promoting brain games are frequently exaggerated and at times misleading”. Earlier this year, industry giant Lumosity was fined $2m, and ordered to refund thousands of customers who were duped by false claims that the company’s products improve general mental abilities and slow the progression of age-related decline in mental abilities. And a recent review examining studies purporting to show the benefits of such products found “little evidence … that training improves improves everyday cognitive performance”.“

John Williams is a living national (world) treasure.

From intellectualtakeout.org, this article was very very good.

“Throughout grade school and high school, I was fortunate to participate in quality music programs. Our high school had a top Illinois state jazz band; I also participated in symphonic band, which gave me a greater appreciation for classical music. It wasn’t enough to just read music. You would need to sight read, meaning you are given a difficult composition to play cold, without any prior practice. Sight reading would quickly reveal how fine-tuned playing “chops” really were. In college I continued in a jazz band and also took a music theory class. The experience gave me the ability to visualize music (If you play by ear only, you will never have that same depth of understanding music construct.)“

Here is one by Shawn Mendes. Enjoy

  Señorita by Shawn Mendes for Eb Instruments (153.2 KiB, 14 hits)
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  Señorita by Shawn Mendes for Bb Instruments (146.9 KiB, 12 hits)
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Microphones are important. They capture our sound. They reinforce our sound in a live setting. But they also feed back and color our sound. In the 60s to early 80s, a lot of guys would drill a hole in the neck of their saxophone to put in an a neck microphone pickup.

However, doing this means no going back. The sound that one of these modifications gets you though is great though. Worth it? I dunno.

Now, flip forward a few decades, and a French company called Viga Music Tools is offering an ingenious new mic (the intraMic) that essentially gets you the sound of a neck pick up, but without altering your neck. Check it out.

One by Panic At The Disco

  High Hopes by Panic At The Disco for Eb Instruments (162.8 KiB, 6 hits)
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  High Hopes by Panic At The Disco for Bb Instruments (168.3 KiB, 5 hits)
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There are a LOT of things a musician needs to make it in the digital world. One little secret thing that I’ve found EXTREMELY valuable is getting a G Suite Business account. Why you want to spend $12 a month on this…?

First, you get to host your domain on there. And you should have your own domain or slice of the internet and not ONLY have your stuff on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and others. A domain name is a great way to brand yourself or your band. Paired with a hosting company (such as squarespace) or using Google Sites, you can have a website in the style you want.

Second, you get email and groups. You can now have access to creating your own email lists. Using Google forms, you can make an easy signup for people to know what you are doing. Gigs, events, etc. Using your domain name.

Third, you get Google Drive…..and unlimited space. Basically, you can put all your recordings, videos, photos, documents, pdfs…..everything, in the cloud. Unlimited is that……unlimited.

Fourth, you can backup to Google. I bought ARQ Backup, and have used it now to backup my laptops, my desktop, and connecting my NAS to my desktop, backed up all 7 TB of my Synology to Google.

So is $12 a month worth it to me? Hells ya.

This seems popular right now…

  Old Town Road - Lil NAS for Eb Instruments (102.2 KiB, 11 hits)
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  Old Town Road - Lil NAS for Bb Instruments (102.3 KiB, 4 hits)
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It’s hard to believe, but 9 years ago, I bought this app. Been using it ever since. For a while, I was stuck on an older version as I held on to using my iPad 1 for my music reader for way to long. But after I got my iPad pro in 2017, and being able to use all the new features they added (and the Apple pencil support), it’s one of my favorite iPad apps.