![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2022\/SuperialTop.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAlexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is some of the background about the Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece from Tom Alexander:<\/p>\n “Many years ago, saxophone specialist Tom Alexander had a dream to make a mouthpiece of his own design. Since the 1970\u2019s, he has worked with some of the top names in the world of the saxophone such as David Liebman, Michael Brecker, Ornette Coleman, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Donny McCaslin, Bob Berg, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Greg Osby, Greg Tardy, Vincent Herring, Seamus Blake, Ralph Morgan and many others with his reeds. As a player, he studied saxophone with saxophone legends Joe Henderson and David Liebman as well as working professionally for 20 years. As a result of these experiences, he amassed a vast knowledge of every aspect of the saxophone in jazz: reeds, vintage mouthpieces, instruments and the music itself.<\/em><\/p>\n In designing this mouthpiece, Alexander had envisioned one which would capture the essence of tonal qualities existing in some great vintage mouthpieces, yet one which might respond better to modern, amplified playing situations.<\/em><\/p>\n After countless hours of research, which later led to the development of over 20 prototypes, and extensive testing and feedback by some leading saxophonists, a<\/em>t the end of 2018, he felt the last prototype finally achieved the high standard of performance he would only accept in order to release it to other saxophone players. Thus, the Alexander Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece was created.<\/em><\/p>\n This mouthpiece is capable of producing a large, focused sound from the bottom range on up to the altissimo with greater punch and projection, an even scale and enhanced upper register. Its large chamber supports a full, rich, warm body in the tone, yet one achieved without tubbiness or stuffiness. It also generates a well defined harmonic edge and balanced resistance. Furthermore, the precise facings and the mouthpiece’s resonant shell allow a player to use a more open tip with ease and this gives the potential to create both a larger sound and a wider dynamic range.<\/em><\/p>\n The Superial I Jazz tenor mouthpiece is milled from the finest-grade German hard rubber bar stock on 5-Axis CNC machinery which enables great precision from piece to piece. Each mouthpiece is machined, hand-finished in the U.S., rechecked in Japan and includes a Midnight Blue pouch. The Superial I mouthpiece’s box nests the mouthpiece in EVA foam and also can function well for touring.<\/em><\/p>\n Available in Red Marble Swirl and works with a standard vintage size Otto Link or Selmer Soloist size of ligature.”-Tom Alexander<\/em><\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Box<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is what Tom Alexander personally wrote to me in an email to me about the Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>I\u00a0 found that I could do things with the Superial I tenor sax mouthpiece that I hadn’t been able to with other mouthpieces…..For one, I felt a real connection between my throat and the chamber cavity which at least to me (and a couple of other guys who reported this), was a sensation that felt “vocal”, i.e. almost like I was singing.\u00a0 This is something I only very occasionally experienced with a couple of special, rare “gem” vintage pieces from out of the hundreds I’ve had along the way…Where I could feel the resonance all the way down to my feet and I love that quality…<\/em><\/p>\n It also kind of changed the way I played.\u00a0 That’s because I found I could open my throat in a manner which allowed me to shape individual notes better with the ability to achieve some variety of tone instead of a “fixed” one.\u00a0 And I was able to convincingly get a range of sounds from dark to bright, ppp to fff, without having to fight the mouthpiece in any way…And the altissimo seems to pop right out, which I think some players will find to be a benefit.”-Tom Alexander<\/em><\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece (under a bright light)<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is another terrific review of the Alexander Superial I Jazz tenor sax mouthpiece that I loved so much that I wanted to quote it here in my review as well.\u00a0 It is by Ed Enright who beautifully wrote:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>“The Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece gave me the sensation that my chops were some how elongated into the very back of my throat. And, like a diving board that gets more pliable the farther out you step, that extra length of air-column control functioned like a springboard for dramatic inflections when pressed upon. \u00a0All of this came easily-it felt as natural as singing or talking, which was revelatory. And even if I were tempted to get carried away with the bends, whinnies, vibrato, swells and other saxophonic effects that are possible with the Superial I Jazz tenor sax mouthpiece, the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece provides just the right amount of well-balanced resistance to keep everything focused and properly governed.<\/em><\/p>\n I loved the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece\u2019s immediate response and the way it gave me access to complex tonal qualities that were even and consistent from one register to the next. \u00a0I was knocked out by just how neatly my altissimo notes slotted; in that regard, the Superial I Jazz Tenor sax mouthpiece is unlike any other tenor sax mouthpiece I have tried. It helped me locate where those overtones resonated, so I was able to nail them every time.-Ed Enright<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n OK, enough of what other people think, let’s get to my review.\u00a0 The Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece came well packaged and protected in the sturdy box and EVA foam packing surrounding the mouthpiece.\u00a0 The storage box it comes in even has a magnet in the lid so the lid snaps closed and won’t open accidentally spilling your\u00a0 brand new mouthpiece onto the floor.<\/p>\n The Superial I\u00a0 mouthpiece looked perfect upon opening the packaging.\u00a0 The red marbled German hard rubber material looks great.\u00a0 The table, tip, rails, baffle and chamber look absolutely perfect, even and smooth with not an imperfection anywhere. The mouthpiece has “Superial I” engraved on the top of the body and “Jazz” engraved below next to the shank of the mouthpiece.\u00a0 Alexander, U.S.A and 7* are engrave around the bottom of the shank.\u00a0 The shank of the mouthpiece is uniquely designed and I haven’t seen another saxophone mouthpiece with that kind of shank design before.<\/p>\n The table of the Superial I tenor sax mouthpiece looks flat and smooth with not an imperfection on it.\u00a0 The side rails and tip rail are nice and thin and look to be perfectly even to my eyes.\u00a0 The tip rail is perfectly matched to the shape of the BSS reeds and Rigotti reeds I used on it.<\/p>\n The inside of the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece looks about as smooth as the inside of a mouthpiece can possibly look.\u00a0 The baffle is a short rollover baffle that ends at a clamshell shape where the baffle then travels down to the floor of the smooth large chamber.\u00a0 The top roof of the mouthpiece chamber is nice and thin and the side walls are nicely scooped out.<\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n The Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece has a lower beak profile than a typical hard rubber Otto Link mouthpiece beak profile.\u00a0 \u00a0I found the angle and lower height of the beak to be very comfortable for me and I actually prefer the feel of a lower beak profile on hard rubber tenor sax mouthpieces.\u00a0 Besides being comfortable, the lower beak profile on a hard rubber tenor mouthpiece also always seems more resonant to me.\u00a0 It seems like more of the vibrations and resonance of the sound is traveling through the thinner beak, the mouthpiece patch, into my teeth and up to my brain.\u00a0 Of course, this could all be in my imagination, but that is what my impressions are when I play on a lower beak tenor mouthpiece. *(Playing mouthpieces with different height beaks has me curious about what effect a higher beak or lower beak has on the sound of a mouthpiece and I plan to do a blog article on this subject in the near future.)<\/em><\/p>\n The diameter of the Superial I Jazz tenor mouthpiece body is similar to the diameter of a typical hard rubber Otto Link tenor sax mouthpiece.\u00a0 Ligatures that would fit on a hard rubber Otto Link tenor sax mouthpiece would fit on this Superial I mouthpiece.<\/p>\n While play testing the Superial I Jazz tenor sax mouthpiece, I started out by using a Vandoren Optimum ligature for hard rubber tenor sax mouthpieces but at some point I decided to try the Sax Clinic Tonus Mundi ligature<\/a> (a blue ligature that you can see a photo of further down the page).\u00a0 I loved the rich character I felt the Tonus Mundi ligature gave me when compared to the Optimum ligature and I decided to record the sound clip below with the Sax Clinic Tonus Mundi ligature.<\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n The Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece played incredibly well with the first BSS (Boston Sax Shop) #3 reed that I put on it.\u00a0 This is the same reed that I recorded the sound clip below with.\u00a0 \u00a0I love when a mouthpiece plays perfectly with the first reed you put on it.\u00a0 I wish life could always go like that……..<\/p>\n The first descriptive phrase that came to my mind while playing the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece was “smooth as butter”.\u00a0 I think of this phrase when I play a mouthpiece that has a “smoothness” to the scale and tone that seems to magically blend the fast notes together.\u00a0 In my mind, this “smooth as butter” quality only occurs when the tone is fat and round and the range of notes on the saxophone is perfectly consistent, uniform and even with a smooth connection between notes.\u00a0 When I play as fast as I can, the notes sound like a smooth blend or blur of notes that exist together as one creation and cohesive unit. “Smooth as butter……..”<\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n The tone of the Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece leans to the darker side of the tone spectrum while still having a focused sound.\u00a0 In one of the written review quotes posted above, the writer compared the Superial I mouthpiece to a Selmer Soloist and I think that comparison is fair because a Soloist is one of the few tenor saxophone mouthpieces that can be dark and also still pretty focused.\u00a0 In my experience, most darker toned tenor sax mouthpieces with large chambers also tend to have what is described as a “spread” tone.\u00a0 A focused, dark and warm tone is much less common.<\/p>\n While the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece does share some of these similarities with a Selmer Soloist, it also is different from a Soloist in that the tone seems richer and more three dimensional than the tone of a typical Selmer Soloist tenor saxophone mouthpiece in my opinion.\u00a0 Many times, when I have played a Selmer Soloist mouthpiece in the past, I love it at first, but then feel like I am locked into and trapped with that Soloist tenor sound and can’t get away from it.\u00a0 The Superial I mouthpiece doesn’t give me that “trapped” and “locked in” feeling.\u00a0 \u00a0The larger Superial chamber allows more air to be pushed through the chamber which can produce more volume, a bigger sound than most Selmer Soloists would produce and the larger chamber allows more tone possibilities and dimensions depending on how you voice or manipulate the sound.<\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Chamber<\/strong><\/p>\n The Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece has a nice polite brightness to the tone in the upper register while still leaning to the warmer side of a tenor tone in my opinion.\u00a0 The tone can be beautifully round but also pushed to get more aggressive while still leaning towards that darker and warmer side of a tenor saxophone sound.\u00a0 The low notes were full and round while also being able to be played as a beautifully focused sub-tone when needed.<\/p>\n This warmth and dark leaning quality to the tone coupled with the “smooth as butter” quality at times led me to almost think of the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece as a possible classical tenor sax mouthpiece.\u00a0 The pretty and focused warmth alongside the ease of playing made we want to pull out some of my old classical saxophone music to try out.<\/p>\n The intonation on the Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece was excellent in and the articulation was immediate and clean sounding.\u00a0 The altissimo register was also easy to play as I demonstrate at the end of the sound clip below.\u00a0 I would describe the altissimo register as more polite and refined rather than screaming and edgy so if you are looking for a prettier more nuanced altissimo sound then this mouthpiece could be a great choice.\u00a0 If you are looking for a bright, aggressive screamer, you would do better with a higher baffled mouthpiece in my opinion.<\/p>\n Although the Superial I Jazz tenor mouthpiece can get a respectable volume, it doesn’t have the volume of a higher baffled tenor saxophone mouthpiece. I would consider it’s volume to be similar to a typical Early Babbitt Otto Link hard rubber tenor sax mouthpiece when pushed.\u00a0 The Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece could certainly hold it’s own on a jazz gig but I would probably bring it on a loud Top 40 or fusion gig just because I don’t think it would have the brightness or power to cut through on a gig like that.\u00a0 For playing standards and Bossa Novas, the Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece would be killin’! *A couple days after posting this review, I posted the second sound clip below to demonstrate how the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece can sound when pushed louder and into the altissimo.<\/em><\/p>\n Sax Clinic SCV Tonus Mundi\u00a0 Saxophone Ligature on a Alexander Superial I Tenor Sax Mouthpiece (I love the blue ligature color against the red marble)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece is an interesting and unique mouthpiece in my opinion that has a unique design and blow to it.\u00a0 While looking at the photos, you would think that the Superial I Jazz would blow and sound a lot like an Otto Link style of tenor mouthpiece with the large chamber and clam shell baffle but in my opinion, the Superial I Jazz has it’s own unique and noteworthy sound, great resistance, response, and voicing to it.<\/p>\n A couple of the quotes I added to the review earlier mentioned this connection of “voicing” to the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece and I experienced the same thing.\u00a0 It just felt so easy and natural to play on and almost felt like an extension of myself in the way the tenor saxophone tone could so easily be manipulated, molded and shaped by me.\u00a0 It was really enjoyable to play this mouthpiece for this review!<\/p>\n Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n If you like the sound and look of the Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece by Alexander Reeds, you can find them in the US at Virtuosity Boston Musical Instruments<\/a> and Second Wind Music in Maine<\/a>.\u00a0 There are many more stores across the Atlantic carrying these Superial I Jazz mouthpieces like Sax.co.uk<\/a>, Thomann Music<\/a>, Saxofoonwinkel<\/a>, PMS<\/a>, as well as many others…….<\/p>\n Tom Alexander has done an amazing job envisioning and then creating this Superial I Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece with an attention to detail that is top of the line.\u00a0 I love reading Tom Alexander’s story about the origins of the Superial I Jazz mouthpiece and how it all started with a concrete vision of the kind of mouthpiece Tom was looking to make.\u00a0 He then paid the price and did the work (20 prototypes) until the Alexander Superial I Jazz mouthpiece became a reality.\u00a0 Inspirational!\u00a0 Thanks Tom Alexander!<\/p>\n If you have played or end up playing an Alexander Superial I Jazz 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece or have any other thoughts or comments about this review, I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.\u00a0 Thanks,\u00a0 \u00a0Steve<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>I will say that doing a comparison or drawing similarities to the Selmer Soloist may mislead players who are searching for that Rich Perry or Joe Henderson vibe, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll be disappointed, just confused. It\u2019s a Soloist in nature, with the right approach, but the Superial I Jazz provides too many colors and too much tonal flexibility, far superseding the Soloist mouthpiece concept in versatility. <\/i>
\n<\/i>
\n<\/i>Overall, I can say for certain that this Superial I Jazz mouthpiece is one of a very small few mouthpieces that have made it through the honeymoon period to not only feel better and sound better, but make me not want to search any further for another tenor set up<\/i>.<\/i><\/div>\n
\nThis Superial I Jazz mouthpiece is a godsend. I can\u2019t remember the last time I haven\u2019t gotten annoyed with a mouthpiece or a mouthpiece that hasn\u2019t done a 180 in character in years. I\u2019ve actually picked up a second one of your mouthpieces, so I now bounce back and forth between a 7 and an 8*. The 8* has given me even more warmth and roundness which I crave some days where the 7 can allow me to cut and be a little more present when I\u2019m in a louder playing situation or the feeling is on me to be a little more assertive.-Brett Walberg, Virtuosity Musical Instruments<\/em><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n