Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

Today, I am super excited to be reviewing the new Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece from Morgan mouthpieces.  The Morgan Kind of Blue mouthpiece is an exact reproduction of the alto saxophone mouthpiece that Cannonball Adderley used from 1954 to 1970.

Among the most famous recordings on which Cannonball played this mouthpiece are Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderley, although there are many others.  These iconic jazz albums helped define the rich, expressive alto saxophone sound that made Cannonball Adderley one of the most influential alto saxophonists in jazz history.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Here is a description of the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece from the Morgan mouthpieces website description:

Museum Quality “Kind of Blue” Alto Saxophone mouthpiece

Produced under the supervision of alto saxophone virtuoso and Downbeat Magazine Top 5 alto saxophone poll winner Jim Snidero (and long-time custodian of the original mouthpiece), every effort has been made to equal the incredible sound, response, projection and intonation of the original Cannonball Adderley alto saxophone mouthpiece.  While offered in multiple sizes, Cannonball Adderley played a size 5 with a medium/medium hard reed.

Mouthpiece History:
When Cannonball Adderley passed away in 1975, prominent LA alto saxophonist Bill Green acquired some of Cannonball’s saxophone equipment, including his sax mouthpieces, from Cannonball’s wife Olga James.  Another prominent LA alto saxophonist named Dave Edwards was good friends with Bill, who graciously gave Dave Cannonball’s mouthpieces.  In the 1990’s, Jim Snidero became friends with Dave after he moved from LA to Orlando. After Dave’s sudden passing in 2000, his wife Phyllis Edwards gifted the alto saxophone mouthpiece Cannonball used on Kind of Blue to Jim Snidero, who has been custodian of Cannonball’s alto saxophone mouthpiece ever since.  

Morgan Kind of Blue Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I have to be honest, Cannonball Adderley’s playing has always been a bit of a mystery to me.  When I was younger, I could understand the phrasing and jazz vocabulary of Charlie Parker, Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Sonny Stitt, and others, but when it came to Cannonball Adderley, I was often a bit lost.

The reason, I believe, was Cannonball’s remarkable sense of freedom. His improvisations flowed with an ease and spontaneity that seemed impossible to predict.  He was free from repetitive articulations, constantly varying them in ways that were both surprising and expressive.  He was free from endless streams of repetitive eighth notes, choosing instead to weave unexpected rhythms into his lines while never losing the groove.  He was free from being confined by the common jazz vocabulary of those around him, forging a musical language that was distinctly his own.

I would listen to Cannonball Adderley a lot as a high school student, but his flowing lines with unpredictable articulations and unpredictable rhythms always confused me as a young student.  My confusion wasn’t so much caused by the notes but by the delivery of those notes.  I couldn’t anticipate what Cannonball Adderley was going to do next and because of that, it was hard for me to figure out how Cannonball Adderley was thinking while improvising.

Even though there was always that mystery around Cannonball’s creativity for me, I have always had a deep appreciation for his tone and ability to express emotion through the alto saxophone.  His commanding, confident sound and bluesy ideas were qualities that immediately resonated with me and remain aspects of his playing that I have always hoped to capture in my own sound.

If the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece can help me move even a little closer to that goal, I will be very happy.

Morgan Kind of Blue Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Since the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece is an exact copy of Cannonball Adderley’s alto saxophone mouthpiece, I think it is important to discuss what exactly Cannonball Adderley’s alto saxophone mouthpiece was.  Morgan mouthpieces has an interesting page on their website describing Cannonball’s mouthpiece that you can check out for the full details: What alto saxophone mouthpiece did Cannonball Adderley play?

Here is a fascinating quote from the Morgan website:

“My first thoughts were…Cannonball Adderley played on a Meyer Bros NY Medium Chamber Model alto saxophone mouthpiece… most every saxophone mouthpiece company, including us, already makes a version of a NY Meyer Medium Chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece.  Even Meyer is claiming they have a re-issue of the original alto saxophone mouthpiece that Cannonball Adderley played.  The world really does not need another Meyer Bros New York style alto saxophone mouthpiece.

Then Jim Snidero showed us the original Cannonball mouthpiece…What’s this?  This is an odd mouthpiece…it’s short, it’s fat, the slope of the beak is steeper resulting in a thicker beak, the chamber is not a standard medium chamber.  There are no markings on the table.  There is a 5 facing stamp on the side left of the end of the table.  The top is marked “Meyer Bros”. There are no other markings visible.  Any markings on the shank are covered by the shank ring.  This is definitely something different, so what was it?

In 1954, Meyer redesigned alto saxophone mouthpieces with all new chamber designs for small, medium, and large chamber models and now all models shared the same exterior body.  This is the model we all know as the Meyer Bros New York Model and this is the model that many mouthpiece companies have used as inspiration for their own “New York” model alto saxophone mouthpieces.  This is also the model that most every online history of Cannonball Adderley claims he played.  All over the internet, you can find articles and blogs that make the FALSE claim that Cannonball Adderley played a Meyer Bros New York Medium Chamber 5 alto saxophone mouthpiece.  NOT TRUE!!!

Not only is everyone on the internet wrong about the model he played, we also believe they are wrong about the chamber size of Cannonball’s alto saxophone mouthpiece.  Due to the shorter exterior of the body, we believe the original mouthpiece is a “Large Chamber” Model…not a Medium Chamber Model.  Meyer marked the chamber sizes on the shanks of the mouthpiece.  Cannonball cracked the shank of his mouthpiece early on and had a brass ring put on the shank to prevent further cracking.  Unfortunately, the brass ring covers the original shank markings.  We begged Jim Snidero to let us remove the shank ring so we could see the markings underneath, but Jim was very protective of the mouthpiece and would not allow us to do it. What we can say is that the chamber is certainly larger than a Meyer Bros New York Medium Chamber, but it is not as large as what most of us think of as a large chamber.  So, our best guess is that Cannonball Adderley played on a Meyer Bros Series III LARGE Chamber Model alto saxophone mouthpiece, and it was definitely made prior to 1954…probably 1952/1953.

While surprising, this was great news for us.  The alto saxophone mouthpiece Cannonball played on is a rare and hard-to-find mouthpiece and there is nothing like it on the market.  The Meyer “Series III” Model mouthpieces were produced for maybe 2-3 years and surviving examples are difficult to find.  Making a modern replica of this mouthpiece re-introduces a mouthpiece design not seen for 70+ years…and what a great playing alto saxophone mouthpiece it is. 

Later in his career, Cannonball did pick up a 1960s Meyer Medium Chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece. He used this newer mouthpiece along with his original mouthpiece in recordings and performances the rest of his career.  However, for most of his career, he played on an earlier hard-to-find Meyer mouthpiece.  If you are looking for a similar mouthpiece to what Cannonball Adderley played, the Morgan “Kind of Blue” Model is a replica and as far as we know, the only mouthpiece like it on the market.“-Morgan mouthpiece website   *If you are still not convinced, visit this link to read the full article about the original banded Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece that Cannonball Adderley played on.

The Morgan Kind of Blue Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece next to the Original Meyer Series III Large Chambered Mouthpiece that Cannonball played

The Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece came well packaged in a beautifully crafted black box with the Morgan logo on it and a gold sticker on the side of the box with the model mouthpiece and tip opening on it.  The mouthpiece was shipped with abundant padding to protect the mouthpiece through the mail.  You can see the video of me opening the package it came in below.

Unpacking the Morgan Kind of Blue Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece has  a “MORGAN” logo  engraved on the top of the mouthpiece with “Kind Of Blue” engraved below the logo.  On the right side of the mouthpiece body as you are looking at the table is engraved the tip opening of 5.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I have to admit that I was tempted to get a 6 (.077) or 7 (.083) tip opening as those tip openings are what I am most used to on for alto saxophone mouthpieces but, Cannonball Adderley played a 5 (.072) mouthpiece and sounded like….. well, Cannonball Adderley, so I figured I would give his 5 tip opening alto saxophone mouthpiece a try and see what I could do with it.

I decided to order the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece with the gold plated brass band around the shank like Cannonball had in hopes of attracting the most Cannonball Adderley energies and auras for this review.  It probably doesn’t make any difference but I didn’t want to play this mouthpiece for the rest of my life and then, when I get to the afterlife, meet Cannonball Adderley and have him tell me, “You know, you really should have gotten the brass band around the shank, it made a big difference.”

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece looks great to the eye.  The ebonite is smooth and shiny and I don’t see an imperfection anywhere. The tip, rails and table look even, flat, precise and perfectly crafted.  The mouthpiece tip rail and side rails are even and symmetrical.  The shape of the tip rail matched the shape of the Vandoren Java (green box) and Rigotti Gold alto saxophone reeds I used on the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece very closely.

When comparing the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece to the new Meyer Bros NY medium chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece I have, the first noticeable difference is the overall length.  The Morgan Kind of Blue mouthpiece is shorter, measuring 3 3/16 inches in length, while the new Meyer Bros alto saxophone mouthpiece measures 3 7/16 inches long.

The body diameter of the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece is also slightly larger than that of the Meyer Bros NY alto sax mouthpiece.  While the difference is not dramatic, the Morgan has a somewhat heavier, more substantial feel in the hand when the two mouthpieces are held side by side.

The baffle of the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece is a medium-high rollover baffle that appears slightly higher throughout its length into the chamber than the baffle of the new Meyer Bros NY alto saxophone mouthpiece I own.  The chamber appears to be a large chamber and is noticeably larger than the medium-sized chamber found in the new Meyer Bros NY alto saxophone mouthpiece.

The Morgan Kind of Blue mouthpiece came with a Rovner light ligature and cap but I used a generic gold alto saxophone ligature just because I had been using it on another alto saxophone mouthpiece I was trying out before I received the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

When I first played the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece, my first impression was that it had an incredible presence and sparkle to the tone.  The tone leaned to the brighter side and had good projection and sizzle in the sound.

What struck me most was just how “Cannonballish” the mouthpiece sounded. It possessed the brightness, power, and sparkle that I associate with Cannonball Adderley’s alto saxophone tone, while still maintaining a very fat and full-bodied sound.  Rather than sounding thin or overly edgy, the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece combined a bright brilliance with a rich wide tone that was powerful and commanding yet beautiful and lovely to listen to.

One unique aspect to the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece was that certain unique notes on the saxophone did remind me of Cannonball Adderley in a way that I haven’t realized with other alto saxophone mouthpieces.  But, I will confess, since this is a copy of Cannonball Adderley’s alto saxophone mouthpiece, maybe I was already anticipating sounding like Cannonball and that is influencing what I am hearing and thinking.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

A very interesting a bit of information I discovered on the internet while searching for what type of alto saxophone mouthpiece Cannonball Adderley used was that Cannonball reportedly used Rico #2 alto saxophone reeds and La Voz medium alto saxophone reeds.    I was surprised by the Rico #2 reeds as that softer strength of reed is not what I would expect a saxophone player that blew like Cannonball Adderley to play on a 5 tip opening (.072) Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece.

Before I read this information, I had been playing the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece with a variety of size 3-3 1/2 reeds as the 5 tip opening was a smaller tip opening than I usually play.  The mouthpiece played great but I wasn’t really getting a Cannonball kind of sound from it with those harder reeds.  The tone with those reeds was more focused and tame sounding than how I think of Cannonball’s alto saxophone tone which I consider to be brighter, fatter and buzzier.  I decided to try some softer reeds and was amazed at how much the tone transformed more towards Cannonball’s alto saxophone sound with the softer reeds.

In the first two recordings below, I am playing on a Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 strong alto saxophone reed and the tone is much closer to a Cannonball sound than on the size 3 reeds I had been using.  I did make a recording with a slightly harder BSS (Boston Sax Shop) 3 Silver Label reed but didn’t like that recording as much as the recordings with the softer reeds that I posted below and didn’t post it.

I didn’t have anything softer than the Rigotti Gold  2 1/2 strong reeds but I put on a Vandoren Java 2 1/2 reed that felt quite a bit softer and was surprised by how well it played on the Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece!   The tone was fatter which balanced with the increased brightness but there was also some added buzz in the sound that reminded me of Cannonball’s sound that I really dug.  The third, fourth and fifth recordings below are the ones with the softer Vandoren Java 2 1/2 alto saxophone reed.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I would say the Morgan Kind of Blue was surprising to me in regards to how much volume I could get out of the 5 tip opening.  I would normally feel like a 5 (.072) tip opening is too closed for me as I am used to playing around .078-.082 tip opening on alto saxophone mouthpieces.   Quite often, when a mouthpiece feels too closed for me, I feel a bottlenecking of the airflow and it feels like I can’t get all the air through the mouthpiece like I want to.

I didn’t feel this at all with the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece. The 5 tip opening felt fine for the amount of air I usually play with.  The Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece got plenty of volume and power and I would rate it as an 8 on my 1-10 mouthpiece volume scale.  An 8 is definitely in the category of being able to be a lead alto saxophone mouthpiece.

The intonation on the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece was excellent up and down the saxophone and the mouthpiece was a great match for my Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone.  Usually, on the Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone, the palm keys can tend to go quite a bit sharper but on the fifth clip I start out playing some high palm key notes and they are easy to play and in tune for me.

In my mind, Cannonball was the master of articulation.  One of the most difficult aspects of his playing to emulate is the way he shapes notes and articulates his lines and phrases.  His articulation is so varied and unexpected that it remains one of the characteristics of his sound that I find the most challenging to master.

The articulation on the Morgan Kind of Blue was clean, crisp, and immediate.  Although, I was secretly hoping the Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece would magically grant me the ability to articulate in the countless ways that Cannonball Adderley did.  Unfortunately, it did not. 😢

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

On the sound clips below, I try to give a good range and variety of alto saxophone sounds and textures so that you can hear the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece perform in different styles.  There are five sound clips that I have included below with reverb added as well as dry (no reverb) for one clip.

The first and second sound clip below are the same recording of me playing a bunch of my typical Neff lines and ideas like I usually do with reverb added and then another sound clip that is a dry recording (no effects) on the sound.   I try to run through a variety of bebop lines, jazz melodies, articulations and miscellaneous ideas up and down the range of the saxophone that you can listen to to get an idea of how the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece sounded and performed for me.  I’m not really consciously trying to sound like Cannonball but just being me.

On those first two clips, with the slightly harder Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 Strong alto saxophone reed, I feel like the Morgan Kind of Blue is more focused, clean and refined sounding compared to the third, forth and fifth sound clips with the softer Vandoren Java 2 1/2 alto saxophone reed.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The third and fourth sound clips are of me playing on the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece on that softer Vandoren Java 2 1/2 reed that I mentioned above.  I really tried to sound more like Cannonball Adderley on these sound clips.  Nothing mind-blowingly  different from my usual playing but I did make a mental note to approach the lines the way I imagine Cannonball Adderley might have.  I tried to be a bit more intentionally bluesy and I also spent some time reading a few transcriptions of Cannonball solos that weren’t overly difficult.

I attempt to play the first chorus of Cannonball’s solo on “One for Daddy-O” from the album Somethin’ Else at the :46-1:20 of the third sound clip.  I certainly don’t do Cannonball justice, as I didn’t have enough time to really shed the solo the way I would have liked.  Still, you can compare it to the original recording and decide for yourself whether the tone is anywhere near the same ballpark.  I personally believe it is closer to that ideal that many of the other alto saxophone mouthpieces I have reviewed throughout the years.

On the fourth sound clip I play the melody to “Stars Fell on Alabama” that Cannonball played on Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago.  Again,  Cannonball sounds angelic on this recording and I sound mediocre in comparison.  The softer Vandoren Java 2 1/2 reed gets me a closer to Cannonball’s alto saxophone sound.

On the third and fourth sound clips with the softer reed the tone seems a bit brighter and buzzier than the first two sound clips but also fatter and rounder sounding.  The tone is not as polite and refined as the first two sound clips with the Rigotti Gold alto saxophone reed.  It’s almost like the tone of the first two sound clips was for a fancy event and the last three sound clips were for a bar gig if that makes sense.

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

In my opinion, the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece is a perfect alto saxophone mouthpiece for those of you looking for a Cannonball Adderley type of alto saxophone sound.  Obviously, you don’t just put the Morgan “Kind of Blue” mouthpiece on and immediately transform into Cannonball Adderley, but for me, the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece gives you all the physical elements needed in a mouthpiece to venture closer to that Cannonball Adderley alto saxophone tone ideal.  The large chamber fattens up the tone and the nice rollover baffle gives you that brightness and kick you need to sound like Cannonball Adderley.  If the Cannonball alto saxophone sound is your goal, then the Morgan Kind of Blue alto sax mouthpiece definitely steers you in that direction of alto saxophone sound.   The rest is a up to you, and by that I am, of course, referring to a lot of practice.

Thanks to Morgan mouthpieces for sending this amazing Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece for me to play and review.  It really is a privilege to play an alto saxophone mouthpiece that is such a close reproduction of the exact alto saxophone mouthpiece that Cannonball Adderley played.  That blows my mind!

If you love the sound and look of the Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece by Morgan mouthpieces, you can find them for sale on the Morgan website.

If you try a Morgan Kind of Blue alto saxophone mouthpiece or have any thoughts, comments or questions on this review,  I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.  Thanks,   Steve

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece-Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 Strong Alto Saxophone Reed-Reverb Added

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece-Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 Strong Alto Saxophone Reed-Same Clip as Above-Dry (No Reverb)

*I added the clips below as I was trying to get closer to the Cannonball Adderley alto saxophone sound using a softer reed which makes the tone a bit brighter, buzzier and a bit fatter sounding.  One realization that became abundantly clear during this review is just how difficult it is to play like Cannonball Adderley.😳

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece-Vandoren Java 2 1/2 Alto Saxophone Reed-Reverb Added 

Morgan Kind of Blue Cannonball Adderley Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece -“Stars Fell on Alabama” – Vandoren Java 2 1/2 Alto Saxophone Reed-Reverb Added