Ok, not Jazz or Saxophone related, but entertaining none the less. Check out Joss Whedon’s latest masterpiece. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Ralph Moore – Bye Bye Blackbird
Another transcribed solo by Kenyon Carter. Ralph Moore playing Bye Bye Blackbird off the Album “Ralph Moore and Ray Brown – Moore Makes 4”
Ralph Moore - Bye Bye Blackbird (49.9 KiB, 284 hits)
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Song iTunes link
Bob Mintzer – Listen Here
Transcribed solo of Bob Mintzer on Listen Here off the album “Bob Mintzer Quartet – In The Moment”. Transcribed by Kenyon Carter.
Bob Mintzer - Listen Here (47.3 KiB, 185 hits)
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Song iTunes link
Stan Getz – The Way You Look Tonight
Transcribed solo of Stan Getz on The Way You Look Tonight from the Album “Ultimate Stan Getz” (probably on another albums/compilations too). Transcribed by Kenyon Carter.
Stan Getz - The Way You Look Tonight (83.3 KiB, 516 hits)
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Song iTunes link
Eric Alexander – Solid
Kenyon Carter sent some transcriptions to put up. The first of which is Eric Alexander on the song Solid off the album “Eric Alexander – Solid”. Enjoy!
Eric Alexander - Solid (72.6 KiB, 308 hits)
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Pink Floyd Founder Dies
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.
Favorite Podcasts
iTunes is a great thing….not only for managing music, but for finding and getting Podcasts. Here are some of my picks.
- In The Groove, Jazz and Beyond
- NPR: Jazz Profiles Podcast
- The SaxTips Podcast
- Detroit JazzStage
These are the “Jazz” ones I have subscribed to. Anyone have any others they’d recommend?
Loading ...SmartMusic 11 Released
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).
MakeMusic To Charge For Finale Notepad 2009 Downgrade
MakeMusic announced today that they are going to be charging for Finale Notepad 2009, which for almost 8 years has been a free product.
“In the next few weeks we plan to release Finale NotePad 2009 with even more features, including an all new Expression Tool and the ability to import/export MusicXML files. It will continue to include free online support. At the same time we will begin charging $9.95 for the NotePad 2009 download.”
Ooo, Online support? XML importing? Wow. Sign me up. NOT.
Meanwhile, get Finale Notepad 2008 while you can. Finale 2009 is a downgrade. Staff Lists limited to 4 (used to be unlimited). Most of TGTools handy utilities do not work (Align/Move, which I use a lot) because of “new” Expression tool. *sigh*. Just avoid it. Unless they are going to be including Garritan sounds with it (hahahaha, yeah, right), $9.95 for their new expression tool and XML importing?
MakeMusic needs to cut down on the number of products it has. It has Finale, Finale Allegro, PrintMusic, Songwriter, Notepad and SmartMusic. Just keep Notepad free, drop Songwriter, drop the price of PrintMusic to $60, and drop Allegro to like $150. Simple.
Don LaFontaine Dies
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.
LeRoi Moore Dies
This is sad, tragic news:
“LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday from complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an ATV accident, the band’s publicist said.”
DMB is one of the few good rock bands out there…..he is going to be hard to replace…..
Saxophones from Taiwan Aiming for the Pros
I came across this article at the NPR. It is about Taiwan saxophones.
“Just how Houli became the world’s unsung center of saxophone making is largely an accident of history. The story dates back to just after World War II. It stars a larger-than-life character named Chang Lien-cheng. He was a farmer’s son who abandoned the family land to become a painter and jazz musician, says a spokeswoman for his company: “No one during that time was actually playing any kinds of Western instruments. But he was fascinated by this instrument called saxophone.””
There is also a “Listen Now” for this article that is worth checking out, as it goes into more details than the written article.
Randy Pausch – Last Lecture
Now, this really has nothing to do with saxophone. Or Jazz. But it is well worth your time to watch. Here is a little background on Randy Pausch and his death this week from incurable pancreatic cancer. His approach to teaching is something I strive to do.
Looking For A New Server
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…..
Johnny Griffin Dies
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.”