Official Bio Tucker Antell is a New England native, but being raised in various states across the US, began his career in Sarasota FL. He started honing his musical craft by sitting in with retirees who took him under their wing and taught him the ropes of Jazz. Tucker explained:“Though I didn’t realize it at [read more…]
Editor’s Note: Below is a powerful exercise shared by renowned sax professional Kenny Brooks. Thanks to the great saxophonist, David Valdez for putting us in touch with Kenny to get Kenny’s permission to include it here on the site. As a means of using amazing improvisational material to improve my ability to move around the horn swiftly [read more…]
(Left: Tim Price, Middle: Roberto Romeo, Right: Joe Lovano) Introduction Since reviewing the Sax Dakota Straight tenor and alto saxophones (Sax Dakota Straights) about a year ago, I recently read a press release that Joe Lovano, after 10 years of playing his L.A. Sax straight tenor and alto met up with Peter LaPlaca (Owner of [read more…]
If you’re like me, you’re always looking for ways to vary your practice routine, improve sense of rhythm and expand your language as an improviser. Here are a few exercises that incorporate groups of five notes (quintuplets) into some very simple triadic exercises that you can practice over the entire range of the saxophone. Some [read more…]
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard educators and musicians refer to learning about jazz improvisation as “learning the jazz language.” Believe it or not, the more I learn about jazz improvisation, the more I agree that this analogy is spot on. The biggest issue that many folks run into, however, is turning [read more…]
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach has long been admired by jazz musicians. John Lewis, Jacques Loussier, Ethan Iverson and many more have all interpreted his music in some way. This may be because there is so much structure and logic that can be applied to the way we improvise. Many know that the baroque [read more…]
We live in an increasingly visual world. A world of billboards, smart phones, computer screens, FaceTime, Instagram, Google ads, Facebook photos, Photoshop. But how about this – jazz music is all about listening. It’s all about sound. It’s an aural tradition. Jazz musicians say this all the time for good reason – because it’s true! [read more…]
Stuck for ideas of what to play over that ii-V7? Give the octatonic (eight note) Diminished Scale a whirl. It’s a self contained, colorful, almost automatic source of melodic and harmonic tension and release that the masters have mastered since its inception. Within this symmetric, octatonic galaxy resides every available dominant tension (with the exception [read more…]