Thursday, April 22, 2010
The First Circle
Not quite the quality of IUPUI, but it'll give you a taste of what this Pat Metheny song "The First Circle" is all about. See if you can count along with it. It may make your head spin!
The Big Band
Recently I attended an IUPUI jazz band concert. IUPUI has one of the hottest jazz bands in the city right now and can back it up with the credentials to prove it after having placed second in one of the toughest jazz band competitions in the country, Elmhurst, and coming out with seven Outstanding Soloist Awards (more than any other band there) and the Outstanding Ensemble award.
As I walked into the venue, The Indiana Historical Society by the canal, I was actually greeted in German by the woman who sold tickets due to my t-shirt of choice which proudly displays "Deutschland" on the front. I knew this was going to be good.
And I wasn't disappointed. The performance had many different styles of jazz ranging from samba to swing to even classical at times. In a typical jazz band there are usually 5 saxophones, 2 altos, 2 tenors, and a bari, 4 trombones, 4-5 trumpets, a piano, vibraphone (similar to a xylophone only jazzier), bass, and drums. The saxophones are the pizazz of the band. They have dynamic, soul-touching voices at the highest points in a song, the sorrowful croon in the blues and a mystique of intrigue in a "cool" jazz tune.
A featured song of the night was Pat Metheny's "The First Circle." For those musicians out there, or those who can count music, an average song is counted in 4/4 time (1-2-3-4) sometimes 3/4 for a jazz waltz (1-2-3) and even 5/4 for an edgy feel such as the theme to Mission Impossible (counted 1-2-3-1-2). This particular one had a time of 22/8 (or 10+12/8). The band had been working on this since November of last year and had decided now to make its debut. Most of the time, such songs that push some aspect of music theory to the edge tend to be a little...weird. Not so with this one. It was incredibly melodic and catchy and deserved its spot as the highlight of the show. Other (not quite as rhythmically tricky, but not exactly a walk in the park either) songs of note were "Dragonfly" (my other favorite), and "Passages."
I encourage anyone who loves music to experience a live jazz band (especially IUPUI) at least once in their life. Who knows, blog buddy, you may even like it.
As I walked into the venue, The Indiana Historical Society by the canal, I was actually greeted in German by the woman who sold tickets due to my t-shirt of choice which proudly displays "Deutschland" on the front. I knew this was going to be good.
And I wasn't disappointed. The performance had many different styles of jazz ranging from samba to swing to even classical at times. In a typical jazz band there are usually 5 saxophones, 2 altos, 2 tenors, and a bari, 4 trombones, 4-5 trumpets, a piano, vibraphone (similar to a xylophone only jazzier), bass, and drums. The saxophones are the pizazz of the band. They have dynamic, soul-touching voices at the highest points in a song, the sorrowful croon in the blues and a mystique of intrigue in a "cool" jazz tune.
A featured song of the night was Pat Metheny's "The First Circle." For those musicians out there, or those who can count music, an average song is counted in 4/4 time (1-2-3-4) sometimes 3/4 for a jazz waltz (1-2-3) and even 5/4 for an edgy feel such as the theme to Mission Impossible (counted 1-2-3-1-2). This particular one had a time of 22/8 (or 10+12/8). The band had been working on this since November of last year and had decided now to make its debut. Most of the time, such songs that push some aspect of music theory to the edge tend to be a little...weird. Not so with this one. It was incredibly melodic and catchy and deserved its spot as the highlight of the show. Other (not quite as rhythmically tricky, but not exactly a walk in the park either) songs of note were "Dragonfly" (my other favorite), and "Passages."
I encourage anyone who loves music to experience a live jazz band (especially IUPUI) at least once in their life. Who knows, blog buddy, you may even like it.
The saxophone section of the jazz band.
The Soul of the Sax
Now that we have your mind limbered up to the many varieties of saxophone (much like ice cream in that there are many flavors that are all good, but then there's that one favorite that tops them all), we'll reach into the deepest depths of the instrument (no, not the dark, moist interior of the horn that gets quite uninviting after an hour's worth of playing time) which happens to be the soul of the saxophone. Now you might be thinking to yourself, "self, what exactly is the soul of the saxophone?" And I would have to intrude into your thoughts to tell you that the soul of the saxophone is as intangible as a human's and also just as alive and free-willed. To explain further, let me illustrate the many personae of the different types of saxophones with an excerpt from The Devil's Horn.
Mike Segell is on a mission to attain inside knowledge on the history of this serpentine instrument and visits a collector who seems he was taken out of the 1920's just yesterday. In addition to coming for notes and a stimulating conversation, he also arrives with the hope of playing a rare bass saxophone.
"Vince Giordano has insisted on washing the mouthpiece of his bass saxophone before I play it. 'It probably hasn't been cleaned since before the horn was manufactured,' he says. Vince bought the behemoth from Artie Drelinger, who played in the Paul Whiteman and Bunny Berigan bands in the 1920s, the beginning of the golden age of dance-band music....
Vince's model is the saxophonist Adrian Rollini, who played the bass in the California Ramblers, the quintessential college dance band of the flapper era. 'Schnoz was the first guy to play melodically on the bass,' he says as he affixes a now-sanitized mouthpiece to Artie Drelinger's old warhorse. He motions for me to sit astride the instrument and try it out. After my fingers find the right positions on the keys, I blow. Ridiculously low blasts of sound escape from the horn. Despite its size, the bass speaks more readily than my tenor. What's truly remarkable, though, is the transforming power of the instrument - of all saxophones, really. The tenor imparts to the player a lean but muscular power and confidence, the baritone a kind of blustering machismo, and the bass...as your breath is organized into sound waves, you're suddenly capable of noises that are superhuman."
As a saxophone player myself, and an avid listener of saxophone music, I found this description of a saxophone's "transforming power" to be incredibly accurate. Each horn takes on its on character or flavor which speaks to the player in a different way. To really get a more firm grasp on this subject, there is no substitute than playing a saxophone yourself, blog buddy. And if that's not happening soon, just take my word for it - saxophones are maaaaaaagical.
Mike Segell is on a mission to attain inside knowledge on the history of this serpentine instrument and visits a collector who seems he was taken out of the 1920's just yesterday. In addition to coming for notes and a stimulating conversation, he also arrives with the hope of playing a rare bass saxophone.
"Vince Giordano has insisted on washing the mouthpiece of his bass saxophone before I play it. 'It probably hasn't been cleaned since before the horn was manufactured,' he says. Vince bought the behemoth from Artie Drelinger, who played in the Paul Whiteman and Bunny Berigan bands in the 1920s, the beginning of the golden age of dance-band music....
Vince's model is the saxophonist Adrian Rollini, who played the bass in the California Ramblers, the quintessential college dance band of the flapper era. 'Schnoz was the first guy to play melodically on the bass,' he says as he affixes a now-sanitized mouthpiece to Artie Drelinger's old warhorse. He motions for me to sit astride the instrument and try it out. After my fingers find the right positions on the keys, I blow. Ridiculously low blasts of sound escape from the horn. Despite its size, the bass speaks more readily than my tenor. What's truly remarkable, though, is the transforming power of the instrument - of all saxophones, really. The tenor imparts to the player a lean but muscular power and confidence, the baritone a kind of blustering machismo, and the bass...as your breath is organized into sound waves, you're suddenly capable of noises that are superhuman."
As a saxophone player myself, and an avid listener of saxophone music, I found this description of a saxophone's "transforming power" to be incredibly accurate. Each horn takes on its on character or flavor which speaks to the player in a different way. To really get a more firm grasp on this subject, there is no substitute than playing a saxophone yourself, blog buddy. And if that's not happening soon, just take my word for it - saxophones are maaaaaaagical.
The Bass Saxophone
Sunday, April 18, 2010
But, Just What IS a Saxophone?
Now, you may be thinking to yourself after reading the title, how stupid does he think his Blog Buddy is? (I don't know about you, but I definitely suggest referring to oneself as "Blog Buddy" in the third person.) Well, Blog Buddy, you little rascal, usually when people think of a saxophone, they think of this.
The Alto Saxophone
This is the money-making, attention-hogging version of this horn, but, to the surprise of many, there are actually a plethora of saxophones out there such as...
The Soprano Sax
The Tenor Sax
The Baritone (Bari) Sax
The iconic alto iteration is part of an entire happy saxophone family. It's actually the middle child, between the soprano and tenor, but just to put some more sense to this family, please kindly consider the following image.
From the pint-sized sopranino to the hulking contrabass that towers over six feet tall (and which some say doesn't even exist), saxophones know how to travel in style.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Why Saxophones?
The saxophone, in the grand scheme of things, is a relatively new instrument. On my quest to find what makes this instrument tick, why it moves the soul, and how it exploded into popularity during the 1920's (The Jazz Age) and why it's kept its popularity into the 21st century, I'll keep you, dear blog buddies, posted.
Lucky for you, blog buddy, you don't have to wait long, because my journey of a lifetime already started about a year ago.
*ANECDOTE TIME*
My family loves Michigan. LOVES MICHIGAN. Naturally, we spend many weekends in small lakeside towns perusing small shops at my parents' leisure while my brother and I trudge along letting our parents know our discomfort derived from looking at women's clothing and arts and crafts wares the whole way. It's pleasant.
Of course being the Catholic family we are, we absolutely must stop on our trek up north at the University of Notre Dame. They have a rather extensive bookstore called the Eck Center. And let me tell you, blog buddy, spending three beautiful, fantastic, painful hours in there every month during the summer is a wonder for the nerves...if you like fried nerves. Yummy.
On one such occasion, I ambled over to the music section which was crammed with biographies of many famous musicians. I stumbled upon a little black book that caught my eye called The Devil's Horn by Mike Segell. It's sleek black cover featured a saxophone with a snake curling out from the instrument's bell. "Well," I thought, "I might as well try to make this interesting."
After a quick skim, I decided to purchase this intriguing piece of work as a last ditch effort to try to cure my boredom for the rest of the "vacation." When I began to read, I found an expertly crafted tale of the world's most controversial, popular, and most loved instrument - the saxophone.
It is this book (and some other fun sources) that will manifest in this blog of all noteworthy musical blogs (On a scale from 1-10 - with 1 being really bad and a 10 being really, really good - I'd give this blog an 8...8.5...no higher than a 9.7. There's always room for improvement. One day, though, I'll write a perfect 10 - because I'm worth it.) mostly because it's served as the inspiration for this mother-lode of creative AP English assignments. Prepare for gratuitous quoting from my lover, the book, in upcoming posts.
Lucky for you, blog buddy, you don't have to wait long, because my journey of a lifetime already started about a year ago.
*ANECDOTE TIME*
My family loves Michigan. LOVES MICHIGAN. Naturally, we spend many weekends in small lakeside towns perusing small shops at my parents' leisure while my brother and I trudge along letting our parents know our discomfort derived from looking at women's clothing and arts and crafts wares the whole way. It's pleasant.
Of course being the Catholic family we are, we absolutely must stop on our trek up north at the University of Notre Dame. They have a rather extensive bookstore called the Eck Center. And let me tell you, blog buddy, spending three beautiful, fantastic, painful hours in there every month during the summer is a wonder for the nerves...if you like fried nerves. Yummy.
On one such occasion, I ambled over to the music section which was crammed with biographies of many famous musicians. I stumbled upon a little black book that caught my eye called The Devil's Horn by Mike Segell. It's sleek black cover featured a saxophone with a snake curling out from the instrument's bell. "Well," I thought, "I might as well try to make this interesting."
After a quick skim, I decided to purchase this intriguing piece of work as a last ditch effort to try to cure my boredom for the rest of the "vacation." When I began to read, I found an expertly crafted tale of the world's most controversial, popular, and most loved instrument - the saxophone.
It is this book (and some other fun sources) that will manifest in this blog of all noteworthy musical blogs (On a scale from 1-10 - with 1 being really bad and a 10 being really, really good - I'd give this blog an 8...8.5...no higher than a 9.7. There's always room for improvement. One day, though, I'll write a perfect 10 - because I'm worth it.) mostly because it's served as the inspiration for this mother-lode of creative AP English assignments. Prepare for gratuitous quoting from my lover, the book, in upcoming posts.
Me and my lover, The Devil's Horn, being scandalous in the Kitchen.
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