The Aebersold jam was a fixture for me and my saxophone-playing buddies in high school. But I didn’t realize the depth of what I learned from it until last week, when one of my oldest friends visited me and we jammed to some Abes. Something we’d not done in over 15 years. Juan Rollan and […]
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Does The Saxophone You Play Make You Better?
If I had a dime for each time I was asked what mouthpiece I play…well, I’d have a lot of dimes. At least enough to take a friend to the movies on a Saturday night. I’m not sure what it is that makes us want to believe that a piece of gear will change (improve) […]
Storytelling in Jazz: The Rule of Three
As far back as I can remember, musicians I respect and admire have talked about “telling a story” in a solo. But what does that mean in musical terms? While mentoring a wonderful group of young musicians at the Mission Jazz retreat, we talked a lot about the structure of storytelling (with the aim of applying it […]
Juicy Little Details: Gene Ammons and the Art of Listening
I’ve loved this album since I first heard it in high school. “Canadian Sunset” in particular. Ammons’ sound, his phrases, the long tail reverb and how he lets his notes float off into it… So many details. Juicy little details. It’s easy to forget how powerful listening is. We musicians get caught up in licks, […]
Wynton Marsalis’ 1-Minute Guide to Playing Hipper Rhythms
Want to break free of those endless, meandering strings of eighth notes you keep catching yourself playing? You know, the ones that seem to go on and on and on forever like a run on sentence but never really have a point or a destination or punctuation or anything that helps the listener engage with […]
Where have you learned the most about music?
For me it was in a van. Three years after I began playing the saxophone I was accepted to a performing arts high school. You might think that school was responsible for me getting a jumpstart on the ocean of information that is the study of jazz and improvisation. But it wasn’t. Not exactly, anyway. […]