First, the Usual NAMM Mea Culpa… Ok, so perhaps the title of this article obscures the fact that this is yet another, incredibly belated report from the ancient history that is NAMM 2025. What seems to be the pattern for BSWE each January after NAMM is that there is just so much to share from [read more…]
Introduction Theo Wanne has expanded its saxophone mouthpiece lineup with the new Essentials series, offering “Concert”, “Contemporary”, and “Jazz” models for soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. These affordable mouthpieces aim to provide options for diverse playing styles. Bryan Vance, the company’s COO, sent me an Essentials Jazz Tenor 7* and Essentials Jazz Alto 5 [read more…]
Here's a new alternative to the uninspiring tunes often found in the average beginning sax book. This collection of 25 tunes, each with backing and demonstration tracks plus a video tutorial, is the product one of my most significant discoveries in over two decades of working with beginning saxophonists. That is, beginners learn fundamentals much faster by playing the kind of music that attracted them to the horn in the first place.
INFINITEMUSICAN.COM
🎷 Sax Fundamentals Faster
Mea Culpa OK, so, maybe this article is based on an event that, at the time of this writing, happened about 5 months ago (aka NAMM 2024). And maybe we were a bit embarrassed to mention that in the title of this article. However, what you’re about to read most certainly lives up to its [read more…]
Introduction It’s been over five years since I last visited John’s shop and much has changed since then. Besides having a large assortment of modern and vintage saxophones, John has expanded his line of products to carry Ted Klum’s mouthpieces, Ishimori ligature & reeds, and an assortment of vintage mouthpiece, ligatures and some neck-straps. While [read more…]
Introduction I had the opportunity to review Marc Jean’s original ligatures , (see picture below) back in 2014 for alto and tenor saxophone. Although I have play tested many ligatures over the years for alto and tenor saxophone and tend to switch from time to time, I have stayed with the original Marc Jean ligature [read more…]
Introduction Back in May, I finally made the trip to visit my sister in Boston. While in Boston, I knew before I left I needed to check out the music scene as well as any music shops that focused on saxophones (problems of a gear head). Even though I was only visiting for a couple [read more…]
Introduction One of the first saxophone-centered stores I ever visited was Roberto’s Winds. I remember when I first visited, the Vandoren V16 hard rubber line of mouthpieces for tenor and alto sax had just come out, in addition to Roberto’s Reeds and earlier versions of their wooden ligatures Quite recently, in addition to reeds, ligatures, [read more…]
Introduction Since reviewing saxophone gear for quite some time, I have had the opportunity to play test quite a few vintage Meyers, Links, Dukoff’s, Brilhart’s, Guardala’s as well as the “new” vintage copies or close replicas of these sought after mouthpieces. Now, for many of us the idea of spending between $500-$2,000+ on a vintage [read more…]
Introduction I remember when JodyJazz first came out with his HR* line of mouthpieces for alto and tenor and since then, Jody has expanded his product line to include 9 different models that are offered for soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. In this article, I will be reviewing Jody’s newest addition to the JodyJazz lineup, [read more…]
I have been following Jack Finucane at the increasingly-popular Boston Sax Shop for quite some time. Since the introduction of the Balam Back Strap, Jack has expanded his product line to include his own necks (Heritage Neck), neck-straps (Newbury Street & Deluxe), cases (Ambassador Case for tenor and alto), reeds (B.S.S.), and most recently his [read more…]
Tips and Techniques from the pros PLUS free access to the Sax Lessons with the Stars archive - 10 years worth of interviews and exercises featuring the likes of David Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Ben Wendel, Bob Reynolds, and many more!
