Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

Today, I am reviewing the new Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece.  The 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece is advertised as capturing the warmth and singing quality of the 1950’s “cool school” of alto saxophone playing in the style of Art Pepper, Bud Shank and Paul Desmond.  As someone who listened to a ton of Art Pepper and Paul Desmond when I was in high school (they had a lot of their records at the local library), I was very curious to try this 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece by Windy City Woodwinds just to see how “cool” it really was………

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece is made in partnership with Windy City Woodwinds and Theo Wanne mouthpieces.  Here is a short description of the 56 Select mouthpiece from the Windy City Woodwinds website:

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece looked great as you would expect a mouthpiece to look when made in collaboration with Theo Wanne.  The mouthpiece is made with premium German hard rubber and has a gold band around the shank that has “Theo Wanne Classic Mouthpieces” engraved into it.  The side of the 56 Select mouthpiece has “56” engraved into the hard rubber and the other side of the mouthpiece has the tip opening of 75 and Select engraved next to the table. The top of the 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece has the Windy City Winds logo of “WCW” engraved in gold.

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece has a perfect looking table, rails, tip and baffle profile.  All these elements look even, symmetrical  and beautifully machined.  The tip rail is nice and thin as are the side rails as they head towards the tip.

The baffle is what I would describe as a long gentle rollover baffle.  It looks to be a medium high baffle and its long roll extends all the way to the rear of the medium sized mouthpiece chamber. The opening at the rear of the chamber into the bore has what I would describe as a “horseshoe” shape to it.  This entrance to the bore has a long gradual squeeze because the sidewalls are straight and angle in towards the sides of the “horseshoe” shaped exit to the chamber.

The roof of the chamber is thin where it starts next to the window but then thickens substantially as it heads through the chamber towards the top of the horseshoe.

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Windy City 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece played perfectly with the first reed I chose to put on it which was a Rigotti Gold 3 light alto saxophone reed.  I also tried a Boston Sax Shop #3 alto saxophone reed as well as a Roberto’s Winds 3 soft alto saxophone reed and they all played great on the 56 Select mouthpiece. All the alto saxophone reeds lined up perfectly with the curved shape of the mouthpiece tip rail.

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece had a very cool vibe to it that I really loved.  Dr Wally Wallace describes it as a “cool school” sound and I definitely get that impression from it.  I’ve read a few comments on the 56 Select mouthpiece describing it as “dark”, and I can agree that the 56 Select mouthpiece is darker than many alto mouthpiece out there, but I found the 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece to be rich and complex in tone while being light and incredibly beautiful sounding.  Rather than being described as “dark”, I found it to have a light brightness to the tone reminiscent of Paul Desmond and also Art Pepper (I’m listening to Art Pepper meets The Rhythm Section right now as I type this).

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I also found the 56 Select tone to have a crispness to it that I really loved. The high notes were crisp and singing.  The tone was focused which made the vibrato very tangible and colorful in my opinion.  I loved the lightness of tone of this mouthpiece which is most definitely “cool”.  So many mouthpieces these days are fighting for the top spot for power and brightness and here comes strolling along the Windy City 56 Select alto mouthpiece being all light, crisp and beautifully flirtatious.  Is that not that the definition of “cool”?

The other side highlight of this crispness in tone is the articulation of the 56 Select.  The 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece articulated very cleanly and crisply BUT at the same time very smoothly.  I keep coming back to that “cool school” description and can’t help but think that the 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece is so cool, that it can articulate incredibly cleanly and crisply while still being so incredibly smooth while doing it.  It’s like imagining someone playing pool while simultaneously drinking a martini and still looking cool doing it.  Can’t be done, you say.  Well, maybe you are just not cool enough……. Yeah, that is “cool school”.

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The intonation on the Windy City 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece was excellent and the range of the horn was even and uniform from note to note making playing fast lines very smooth and even.

The other aspect of the 56 Select that I really appreciated was how focused it sounds.  It is light in tone, but that tone is beautifully focused.  I think this has to do with that horseshoe shaped opening and how the air is funneled into that smaller opening in a squeeze that occurs from the top, bottom and side walls.  I like to imagine the sound being compressed and focused as the player blows.  This tight ball of sound is somehow both focused and concentrated, yet also light and floating.

Right now, as I type this, I am listening to the sound clip below and I really think the windy City 56 Select sounds amazing on this clip (Yes, I’m biased…..).  I could point out so many places in the sound clip where my first thought is “Wow, beautiful!”.

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

In my opinion, the Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece is a great hard rubber alto saxophone mouthpiece for those looking for an alto saxophone tone with a light, singing resonance to it that is full of rich overtones and beautiful harmonics that the listener can’t help but be mesmerized by.

I’m pretty sure Art Pepper and Paul Desmond would totally dig this mouthpiece.   I can’t guarantee it, but I’m thinking the 56 Select alto sax mouthpiece would be right up their alley if they were still alive.

Great job to Dr. Wally Wallace, Kevin Braner, Matt Braner and Neil Xu at Windy City Winds, as well as Theo Wanne for developing and creating a very “cool” sounding alto saxophone mouthpiece.

If you like the sound and look of the  Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece, you can find them for sale at the Windy City website.  After you check out my sound clip below, check out Dr. Wally Wallace’s informative video on the 56 Select mouthpiece below.  Dr. Wallace captures the many descriptive words in my review so well at the 4:43 mark in the video.

If you are lucky enough to play a Windy City 56 Select alto saxophone mouthpiece or have any other thoughts or comments, I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.    Thanks,   Steve

Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece – Rigotti Gold 3 Light Reed

Video of Dr. Wally Wallace demonstrating the Windy City Woodwinds 56 Select Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece. I especially love the sweet alto sax tone at the 4:43 mark in the video! So beautiful!