Archive for the ‘Live Recordings’ Category

This is a live clip from a gig I did a number of years ago. I play a tenor solo using the Freddie Gregory Mark IV 7** piece I had.  The mouthpiece is made of hard rubber with a medium high long baffle in it that slopes down into the chamber. This mouthpiece gets my vote for being one of the more versatile pieces I’ve played. It can be brighter and wailin’ or you  can lay back on it and get a great jazz tone.  The tune is  a funky rendition of “Use Me”.

 
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Here’s a “live” clip of my white acetal Lamberson 7DD tenor mouthpiece. This is the same piece that I play on the “Let’s Get it On” video on my website. I’ve always said that Fred Lamberson makes amazing mouthpieces. This 7DD mouthpiece is no exception. It’s on the brighter side of the spectrum but still has a  big fat core sound to it. It’s not this at all. This clip is of a wedding introduction. We announced the Bride and Groom and then went into this SNL type groove. The  cool thing is that many times we had no idea what we were going to play. The bass player would just yell out a key and we would go………….

My Jon Van Wie refaced Super Tone Master Link is the Mouthpiece that I have played on the most over the last 10 years. Jon Van Wie was an incredible mouthpiece refacer (sad to say that he died a number of years ago).  I had the good fortune to have him work on a few of my mouthpiece before he died.  I actually had him work on a metal link 7* that turned out to be too bright for me.  I saw this 8 metal link on ebay and snatched it up as fast as I could. This 8 plays with the perfect balance of highs and lows. Jon would reface the mouthpiece but then put this magical baffle into it that made a dull dead link come alive. To this day I haven’t met anyone that can make a baffle like Jon did. The magical thing about this piece is that you can play a jazz standard on it and sound great and immediately go into a  “Respect” solo and sound equally as great. Here’s a sax solo on “Respect”and “I’m Coming Out” . It’s a little rough and not the best recording but you get an idea how the JVW metal link handles in those type of “live” situations. This is my go to gig piece when I have to play a multitude of styles.

Respect Solo

I’m Coming Out Solo

One of my students challenged me to play this song……so I’ve been working on it.  It’s getting there.   Man this thing is hard.  I’m going to keep working on it until it’s perfect and I can play it in my sleep………. I’m dedicating this one to my Dad. He use to come to all my concerts and after every concert would say “Pretty good son but……..you need to work on your technique! It’s all about your technique! If you don’t have good technique……….” Anyways, here you go Dad. I know, I know…..technique! I’m playing this on a Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone and my Freddie Gregory refaced HR Link 7. Not bad for a jazz player………..