Jeff Driskill talks Practicing, Session Work, Doubling, Versatility, and More
This week’s Best. Saxophone. Podcast. Ever. features top Los Angeles session saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer, and arranger Jeff Driskill.
Regardless of your horn, mouthpiece, or reed, the truth is, to the outside listener, you sound pretty much like...you. It's not that gear doesn't affect your sound at all, but your biggest and richest sound will only come by developing the skills within both your body and mind to sound great on any setup.
So if you're willing to move beyond having your day ruined by a lousy reed, then sax legend David Liebman's course, Ultimate Guide to Saxophone Sound Production is where you're going to want to go next.
Broken down into bite-sized lessons, this streaming video program covers just about every single aspect of saxophone sound production. It represents his entire life's work teaching the techniques and concepts that were handed down to masters such as Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, and Harvey Pittel (among many others), and then refined over the course of decades teaching countless lessons and masterclasses worldwide. Click below to see for yourself why so many professional saxophonists consider David's thorough, methodical, and practical approach the "real deal" for players at any level.
SAXOPHONETONE.COM
The Ultimate Guide to Saxophone Sound Production
Jeff’s played on a multitude of soundtracks including “Toy Story 3”, and has also worked with a multitude of film composers including John Williams. In the world of popular music, Jeff’s played with luminaries such as Prince, Alan Jackson, Michael Feinstein, Annie Lennox, Michael Bolton, Josh Groban, Steve Tyrell, and Fiona Apple to name a few. He’s also recorded with some of the giants of modern jazz including Eddie Daniels, Arturo Sandoval, Take 6, Patti Austin, Clare Fischer, Dianne Reeves and Hubert Laws. A major player in the world of modern big bands, Jeff can be found playing both live and on recordings with bands such as Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, The Bob Florence Limited Edition, the Chris Walden Big Band, as well as The John Daversa Progressive Big Band.
On top of all of that, Jeff has written some incredible saxophone and clarinet quartet music. You can purchase the sheet music for the quartets at Jeff’s website.
January 5, 2011 @ 8:15 am
Excellent interview! I got in touch with Jeff via SOTW and was thinking about asking him to do an interview for my blog but you beat me to it. Maybe I’ll do an analysis of his insight, or get another one of those LA cats to do an interview. Great blog too, man.
January 5, 2011 @ 10:11 am
Hello Dave,
Thanks so much for the kind words! Jeff is a really cool guy, so hopefully he’d be able to answer some questions for your blog as well.
It’s always good to meet fellow sax/jazz bloggers, and I really like your site. Let’s definitely stay in touch via Facebook and on our respective blogs.
All the best from L.A.,
Doron
April 20, 2011 @ 12:55 am
Just discovered this great podcast – well done. The timing of my listening to this interview was perfect: on my way to a pit gig (reduced band amateur version of Beauty and the Beast) where I was doubling clarinet, bass clarinet, sop sax (to fake oboe & cor anglais parts) & flute. Inspirational stuff!
The only gap in the interview was actually practicing doubling; not keeping all your instruments up to scratch in rotation (interesting to hear how Jeff rotates his practice routine) but playing a phrase on tenor, having 2 bars to move to flute for 6 bars then another 2 bars to get over to bass clarinet… and being able to get a decent embouchure & tone on each one! This is perhaps an extreme example, but the basic scenario is common, from community theatre to the West End. I think this is worth a separate segment of any doubler’s practice routine.
April 20, 2011 @ 7:28 am
Hello Andrew,
Thanks for the kudos! And you’re totally right about giving more attention to the challenging art of quickly switching between the doubles. In fact, you’ve given me an idea for an article…
At any rate, thanks for dropping by,
Doron
July 22, 2013 @ 6:17 pm
Jeff: Very cool arrangement, and great overdubbing on all the parts. Every sax you play sounds great giving a nice full sax section sound. Did you write the chart too in your spare time between gigs and on set breaks?
Take care,
Larry W
July 23, 2013 @ 10:05 am
Really nice interview with Jeff Driskill. I liked his comment about that if you really want to do something than do it.