Category: News

Walrus Plays The Saxophone

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From the UK (those crazy Brits)
The Beatles once penned the song “I am the Walrus” but now this whiskered marine mammal has proved that the animal kingdom can blow its own trumpet.
Under the direction of her trainer, Sara the Walrus grips the brass instrument between her flippers and blasts out a note.
Wetsuit-clad Russian trainer Sergiy has also taught her to strike a nonchalant pose, leaning on a work top with one flipper under her chin and looking bored.
Sara’s skills at mimicking humans extend to dressing up as a railway platform conductor and blowing a whistle.

Man, it really sounds like Ornette Coleman or something doesn’t it?

News

MakeMusic CEO Resigns

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I came across this today.

Minneapolis – November 24, 2008 – MakeMusic Inc. (Nasdaq: MMUS), a world leader in music notation and education software, today announced that John Paulson has resigned from his positions as co-chief executive officer and director. Mr. Paulson will serve as a consultant for the company for a transitional period. The board of directors would like to thank Mr. Paulson for his service to the company: As the founder of MakeMusic, Mr. Paulson’s commitment, dedication and entrepreneurial spirit were instrumental in helping MakeMusic achieve its status as a leader in its field.

Is this hopefully a good turn for the makers of Finale and SmartMusic? I hope so. Finale has been a mess since Finale 2007. They added Linked Parts, then did nothing. They have been adding fluff to Finale, and focusing on SmartMusic, which is a similar disaster. There is a lot of potential in both products, but there is a disconnect and how they work together (basically……..not really well).

Hopefully 2009 will be the year they get their act together……or someone creates a way for Sibelius to read Finale 2009 and previous version files……without any conversions.

News

Akai USB EWI

Posted on By ericdano 8 Comments on Akai USB EWI

akai-ewi-usb-600-2Suppose you want to play EWI. But you don’t want to play the Studebaker one. And you don’t particularly need nor want to visit the 70s and early 80s with the Analogue synth found in the EWI4000S.

Fear not, Akai has heard your pleas.
” Akai Professional, the name synonymous with music production, announces EWI USB, its latest wind controller, is now shipping.

EWI USB enables anyone, regardless of wind instrument-playing experience, to perform with the expressive capabilities of the wind instrument of their choice. The wind controller features a plug-and-play USB interface for use with the included Aria software with Garritan and Akai Professional samples as a sound source. EWI USB is Mac and PC compatible.”

They also have more detailed information on their website now. People who want to pretend they play Cello, or Oboe, or whatever will be delighted with the Garritan Aria player that comes with the EWI USB. List price is $299. Not a bad deal.

I somehow think Akai has good humor in announcing this on Halloween.

News

The Music of George Garzone & The Triadic Chromatic Approach DVD

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George Garzone has a 2 DVD instructional set coming out next month. $89.95. Sounds interesting.

“The Music of George Garzone & The Triadic Chromatic Approach”, is a Jazz Improvisation Instructional DVD and much, much more.
MADE FOR ALL INSTRUMENTS

  • Performances: Solo, Duos, Trios, an Sextet performances
  • The Triadic Chromatic Approach: 23 Chapters & 30 Examples of In-Depth Lessons
  • Trading Play Alongs: George Plays / You Play w/ Rhythm Section
  • Pure Play Along: You Play w/ Rhythm Section
  • Garzone On Sound: In-depth Lesson of Saxophone Sound Production
  • PDF Supplements: Transposed for all instruments, examples, exercises and lead sheets
  • Bonus Features: Interviews, Alternate Takes, Extra
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Finally a Good Sampled Saxophone Instrument?

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We have all suffered the pain of listening to synthed or sampled saxophones. Some of them have sounds that kill at 50 paces. Some of them try to convince you they are real like an inept Politician trying to get reelected. All generally fail to sound like the real thing.

Enter SampleModeling’s new Tenor Saxophone instrument:
“We are proud to present the result of our collaboration with Stefano Lucato. Stefano was the developer, along with Dr. Giorgio Tommasini, of the Stradivari Violin and the Gofriller Cello.

Stefano Lucato & Samplemodeling created the next groundbreaking virtual instrument: the Tenor Saxophone! It´s extremely expressive, enjoyable, and intuitively playable – simply a real sample-modelled instrument!”

Cost….probably $240. Probably the best sampled saxophone I’ve heard, but……..you know……..it still……well……you know.

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Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane Church in Trouble

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From the SF Chronicle:
“..earlier this year one of its principal funders, the New College of California, collapsed financially, leaving the church without a vital income source. The school had paid two-thirds of the church’s rent, so now King and his retinue are again asking its members and the community to help the church.”

Background is that the church was founded by saxophonist Franzo Wayne King back in 1971. He and his wife had a “religious experience” at a Coltrane concert in 1965. So, I guess the natural outcome was to found a church for it 6 years later during the whole hippie thing in the Bay Area? Dunno…..but it’s time of existence is getting rather short unless there is some “divine” intervention (or a large influx of money…or both).

News

Pink Floyd Founder Dies

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From the BBC
Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died at the age of 65 from cancer.

I always think of Pink Floyd as sort of a Miles Davis rock group (without Miles). Lots of colors, and mood to their music. Plus, they had saxophone (sometimes).

I can cite two songs that were influential in me wanting to play saxophone. The first was Michael Frank’s “Dr. Sax” which features Michael Brecker (I didn’t know who the saxophone player was at the time. I just knew he had unearthly talent). The second song was “Us and Them” by Pink Floyd. Dunno, love that song.

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SmartMusic 11 Released

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MakeMusic released SmartMusic 11 on Thursday. After nearly 3 hours of downloading at a whopping 10k/sec, I got it. Installed it. And…….well, it looks the same. No interface changes. Can’t really tell what they did to it.

Certainly not worth a 11 release. Maybe a 10.2 or something.

They really need to change the interface, fix the green follow line (STILL lags behind on my iMac 2gigahertz Core 2 Duo on up tempo songs), and all the other things I’ve complained about before.

Oh, and add Grainger’s Children’s March to the Concert Band library………

UPDATE: I also get this message on my Mac:
“Warning: you do not have write access to all files and folders under ‘/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/SmartMusic Studio’. Certain aspects of SmartMusic may not work, including Impact assignments. To fix this issue, contact your network administrator.”

First thing is that the program installs SmartMusic in the System Library, not the user area. Why? Dunno. And looking at the directory permissions I see: “drwxrwxrwx 7 ericdannewitz admin 238 Sep 13 11:46 SmartMusic Studio”

So……what gives guys?

UPDATE: Oh, found another thing. You can continue to use the program while it downloads new music. That certainly qualifies for a 11 release (tongue in cheek).

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Don LaFontaine Dies

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Don LaFontaine, the man who provided the sonorous voice for more than 5,000 movie trailers, died Monday at age 68. LaFontaine was known as the “king of the movie trailers,” having done the trailer voiceovers for films such as Terminator, Fatal Attraction, Cheaper by the Dozen, Batman Returns and his personal favourite, The Elephant Man.

Yeah, I know, not really saxophone related, but this guys voice was amazing.

News

Looking For A New Server

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I’m looking for a new server to host Jazz-Sax on. The current server, a 1997 Dual Pentium II 450 with an Adaptec RAID card and two 40gig hard drives works ok, but it is huge, eats lots of electricity, and generates a lot of heat and noise.

What I’m looking for is perhaps someone who wants to donate a G4 Mac Mini, or perhaps an older Shuttle Mini PC or something. Something smaller, that eats less energy, generates less heat, and is relatively quite.

Actually, I’d pay a little for a Mac Mini……I’d love to get something small and stick a SSD in there…..

News

Johnny Griffin Dies

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Sad news today
“US jazz tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who played alongside such luminaries as Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey and Thelonius Monk, died Friday in France, his agent Helene Manfredi said. He was 80.

Nicknamed the Little Giant, Griffin was due to perform Friday evening alongside US organist Rhoda Scott, French saxophonist Olivier Temime and drummer Julie Saury.

Griffin died at home in Mauprevoir, a village in the west-central La Vienne district, where he had spent the last 18 years of his life. The cause of death was not disclosed.”

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iPhone/iPod Touch Music Applications

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Unless you have been living in a cave for the last week, you know that the new version of the iPhone is out. The iPhone 3G. The other thing that is out is new software for previous iPhone/iPod Touch owners. The new version of the system software supports applications. There are lots of games and stuff out. But there are TWO music ones that are worth a look.

The first one is Karajan Beginner. Theory trainer and stuff. There is a paid version of this as well which I imagine expands on the drills.

The second one is GuitarToolkit. Yes, it is more geared towards guitar players, but the tuner and the metronome are excellent. I thought it was a good $10 spend for a tuner and metronome, though it would be nice if you flipped the iPhone over, it would flip the tuner over. Perhaps the next version.

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