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Category: Articles

Norbert Stein

Posted on March 15, 2009April 17, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on Norbert Stein

stein3aaI came across German Saxophonist Norbert Stein’s website today.

He has a TON of stuff up there for FREE. A comprehensive saxophone workbook (more like a book for free), compositions, CDs for sales (of course) and more.

Highly recommended. Check it out. He’s getting a place on my “sites” links.

Articles, Sheet Music

Singing At The Bottom

Posted on March 10, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on Singing At The Bottom

I don’t know if I am crying cause it is so bad or because it hurts so much.

Articles

iBrecker.com……..Gone?

Posted on February 12, 2009 By ericdano 2 Comments on iBrecker.com……..Gone?

It seems that iBrecker.com has been down for a while now. Anyone know it’s status? It is sad, as it had a lot of interesting clips on the site, as well as some great transcribed solos. However, the forums seemed dead…….for a long time. That is a shame.

Articles

TIME: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

Posted on February 8, 2009February 8, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on TIME: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

Time Magazine has an article about the abuse of AutoTune. Another reason why the “Pop” music industry sucks. It is a dangerous tool………obviously prone to abuse. And some “singers” would not have the stardom they have without it.

Or……..some people can use it to ingeniously mock

Of course, nothing sounds better than someone who doesn’t need any help

Articles, Videos

EWI Wars Over?

Posted on January 18, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on EWI Wars Over?

One good way of judging how good or bad something is doing is by looking at the press it is receiving. For example, the Microsoft Zune. When it was launched, it garnered a lot of press. Office Depot even had it in their weekly ads and even had in store displays. Now……..nope. Their weekly ad has a SansDisk Fuze player, and iPod accessories.

This week, I received a catalog from American Musical Supply. It usually, towards the back with the keyboards, has the Akai EWI 4000s and the Yamaha WX5 on a page. This issue…..the WX5 wasn’t listed. *Gasp*

Could this be a sign that the EWI wars are over? That Yamaha might can the WX line? I’m not too sure, but when sellers are not advertising it, but rather a competing product……one might get a little worried. Though I think we will see Microsoft kill the Zune line well before Yamaha kills the WX.

Articles

New WordPress Theme

Posted on January 18, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on New WordPress Theme

Ok, finally found and got around to installing and tweaking a new WordPress theme for the site. I like it better than the old one. It supports threaded comments (whoohoo), and generally looks more professional. I might change the colors around a little though.

Let me know if there are any issues or anything.

Articles

More Podcasts

Posted on January 10, 2009 By ericdano 2 Comments on More Podcasts

Some more Podcasts I discovered.

  • Yamaha Wind Instruments Podcast
  • Sonny Rollins Podcast
  • The Traneumentary
  • Wynton Marsalis Podcast
  • Christian McBride Podcast
  • Jazzcorner
  • The Jazz Session
  • Jazz Inspired
  • Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
  • Legends Of Jazz
  • Chicago Jazz Magazine
  • The Night Passage Jazz Podcast
Articles

Zinn Practice Regimen For Saxophone

Posted on December 25, 2008February 14, 2009 By ericdano No Comments on Zinn Practice Regimen For Saxophone

Ok, I think this is the FINAL version of this. Last updated in 2005, this version took out some stuff I had in there, and put in some stuff I have been practicing lately (triad things). 32 Pages of Saxophone goodness.

It is FREE and available here

  Zinn Practice Regimen For Saxophone 2009 version (1.8 MiB, 815 hits)
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and via Lulu here

Plus you can buy a copy for about $13 if you want something already bound and what not. Expect an update to the II-V patterns soon…..it is gonna be HUGE.

Oh, and that is a Conn-O-Sax on the cover. Why? I dunno, it looks cool….thats why!

Articles, Sheet Music

Jazz Musicians Look to Federal Budget for Bailout Support

Posted on December 24, 2008 By ericdano No Comments on Jazz Musicians Look to Federal Budget for Bailout Support

Washington, D.C. (CNN)
In light of the recent downturn in the American economy, the nation’s jazz musicians have joined the long line of lobby groups looking to Washington for support as the economy slides into a deepening recession.

The jazz industry is asking Washington for a bailout package and major subsidies on par with that of the auto sector. As such, jazz musicians also want access to credit and tax breaks to stimulate investment and help the development of new recording and performance opportunities.

“This recession has really got me dragged, ya dig?” says Luther Hip Bones Jones III, a New York City saxophonist and a cornerstone of the little known Wall Street Avant-Garde jazz scene.

“I mean, now that gigs arent a flowin’ like they used, I actually have to get up before noon and find a way to make some coin!”

Similarly, Jones associate Willie Fat Cheeks Hughes comments that with the economy in near chaos, the demand for his jazz bagpipe skills has waned considerably. Hughes also comments that with a sluggish economic situation, he will soon have to find another girlfriend or else face certain homelessness.

While this crisis has been brewing for some time, a recent spike in the number of trombonists delivering pizzas in New Yorks Greenwich Village has recently brought this dire situation to the publics attention.

Last week, however, jazz advocate Wynton Marsalis met with President George W. Bush and the White House economic team to discuss the worsening situation for America’s jazz artists and a possible stimulus package.

Marsalis was quoted as saying: “I think its important for the government to understand that our musical recession has actually been worsening since the demise of New Yorks 52nd Street scene in the early 50s and thanks to the racket these kids call Hip Hop. They really should have seen this coming. Since Miles went electric, its all been down hill.” As Marsalis continued, “I think that a strong monetary stimulus package and a mandatory listening of Duke Ellington records should encourage a healthy economic recovery.”
WyntonAndPresidentBush
President Bush responded to these comments by replying that: Mr. Margolis has a very good point here. “The country will be in dire straights if we lose our jazzy beats. I mean, personally, I always enjoy a little Kenny G in the evening while I try to woo the First Lady.”

Bush also commented that a global consensus on the state of the jazz economy will have to be reached. The way things stand, America’s jazz artists just can’t compete with the lower paid jazz artists currently flooding the market from China.

In related news: America’s Blues musicians report an increase in depressing lyrics. “[It] indicates a reflection of the times.” claims one downtrodden guitarist whose wife recently left him and whose dog has died.

Articles

EWI Firmware & TGTools Updated

Posted on December 23, 2008December 23, 2008 By ericdano No Comments on EWI Firmware & TGTools Updated

Two quick updates. For all you Akai EWI 4000 owners, Akai released new firmware for it. Version 2.4 is out. Not a lot of differences according to the readme other than Oboe and Flute fingerings.

TGTools, the essential plugin for Finale users finally received an update to work with Finale 2009. Version 2.5 doesn’t seem to have any new features, but all the existing features of TGTools finally work correctly with Finale 2009.

Happy times.

Articles

Shure 58……Better Than A Towel?

Posted on December 20, 2008 By ericdano No Comments on Shure 58……Better Than A Towel?

Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the thing to have as a towel.
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

However, I think the Shure 58 might now rank higher than the Towel. This is NOT for the faint of heart.

Articles

The Joys Of Youtube…..Product Advertising

Posted on November 30, 2008November 30, 2008 By ericdano No Comments on The Joys Of Youtube…..Product Advertising

Now it seems the world of advertising of products has now reached youtube. Saxgourmet (love em or hate em) has a fuzzy video up pawning his products on the net.

Personally, I hate youtube videos like this. A thought out script, and perhaps high quality still pictures of the mouthpieces with a well written dialogue would have been better than this. Or naked women……..or clothed women……..

Articles

Get Off Your High Horse Dood

Posted on November 21, 2008 By ericdano 1 Comment on Get Off Your High Horse Dood

So, I had my bi-monthly jazz band rehearsal last night. I came to find out that the Bass player and one of the trumpet players decided to quit do to some huff about the Bass player. Long story short, the bass player plays electric bass, and basically, she was loud most all the time. Like boom boom boom loud. I forget exactly what tune we were doing, but we were trying to get a less boomy sound from her, like more mids than bass. To get the boom out. Anyhow, she got totally offended and quit. Whatever. This is just the setup for this post.

The trumpet player. Ok, he is a retired teacher. That is all fine. However, he always has to say this or that about how a tune should be played. Ok, fine, that is all good. It is good to know how Band X did it on recording Y 50,000 years ago. A good band will take that information and maybe use it or consider it while playing. But I personally don’t think that is the point of playing. You are supposed to bring your own take to the song, be it bad or good.

Now, I’ve been trying to bring in different music for the band to play. Like I found this great arrangement of Crescent City Stomp by Kris Berg, and Greensleeves by Greg Yasinitsky. Anyhow, I found out he quit not only to back his bass player friend, but also that he was offended to play such music. WTF? Huh? So is there some sort of standard that he breaks playing these? I mean, he ain’t exactly the world’s hottest player. Most of the time he was back there putzing around and missing notes on charts. I wasn’t expecting to play the tunes every rehearsal, but there is only so many times you can play Shiny Stockings, or Cherokee before you want to gouge your eyes out. Change is a good thing and new is sometimes good. Heck, a lot of the band members liked the variation, especially the rhythm section. Is there some sort of legal statute that was broken when playing these? Heck, we have played (and he has soloed on) a couple of really bad arrangements of tunes (Moondance comes to mind).

I find it rather interesting that when he brought in tunes, they all pretty much sounded the same. About the same level, a good middle school or high school could pull off (something he didn’t like about the charts I was bringing in). Arrangements off obscure albums with bands that no one knows. Charts that you’d play and wish you could have that 4 minutes back because it was just like the last one. Or you now know why no one ever plays that chart.

I didn’t like those charts, nor the times when he ran the band and we basically were forced to suffer a rehearsal with him running it. But I didn’t quit over it. Music is music, and I have an open mind to at least playing something a couple of time, if I like it, great, if not, someone else might like it. It is a group thing, not “we are playing all my tunes like it or not”.

Well, whatever. Seems he wants to ride his high horse to wherever it takes him. Good luck with that. We will continue to play a variety of music without him. In fact, the subs last night sounded a lot better than him. And boy, we played a lot more tunes without him asking obvious questions on the form, articulation, or why something was written this way or that. Must be a teacher complex thing.

I will miss the bass player though…..oh well, you have to do what you feel is right.

Articles

The Conn-O-Sax

Posted on November 10, 2008 By ericdano 1 Comment on The Conn-O-Sax

While surfing the net, I came across the strange instrument called the Conn-O-Sax. There is one on Ebay right now that can be bought for the princely sum of $100,000 (I kid NOT).

Conn made these to spur sales that had been slumpin. Seems they made them from 1915 to 1925, and they believed it was going to be the next big thing. They do have almost a 3 octave range (A to G), and the tone I’d describe as a really mellow soprano in quality to something like a Paul Desmond sound. Sadly, it seems that only about 20 of these instruments exist now.

If you want check out some audio clips (or buy a CD), Rob Verdi has an excellent album out that he did exclusively on the Conn-O-Sax. And it sounds great!!

Below are the images off the Ebay auction because I though this instrument was extremely interesting.

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Articles

So You Wanna Record A Big Band…..

Posted on October 29, 2008 By ericdano No Comments on So You Wanna Record A Big Band…..

So, I’ve been working on this CD for a big band I play in. I have no idea how much it cost to get the person to record it, multitrack, and a couple of sessions. I’m thinking at least $6,000….if not more. So, say you have ProTools (or something similar) that can handle 30 tracks of audio. How much would it cost to get the equipment to do it yourself…..let’s figure it out……

Read More “So You Wanna Record A Big Band…..” »

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