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Home Alt Forums Your Video Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Tenor Sax): An Anniversary Present For My Wife

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  • #52356
    Keith Taylor
    Participant

      Hey Y’all,

      I emailed Johnny earlier today to personally thank him for his videos on YouTube and this site helping me out with this project to some degree. I’m hestiant to share it on here because I feel I’m likely out of my league with many of you in regards to playing, but, this video was my first attempt at recording a finished track. Through it I learned that ballads are *hard* to play and play well. That being said, I gave it my best effort and intend on keeping at it in order to get more where I’d like to be with my playing. The first part of it is a monlogue that explains why I picked this song, and then the second is me playing:

      Keith

      #52390
      Pete
      Participant

        Very nice Keith a way to go but you sounded good, you mentioned
        player called Aubrey Graves, he his one heck of a sax player
        not many better, especially at 90 years of age. If I could play
        one tiny bit as good as him I would be over the moon.

        #52391
        Mel
        Participant

          Obviously a lot of thought went into your video. Nice work!

          #52392
          Pete
          Participant

            Just listened to Aubrey Graves again not watched on youtube
            for a while, forgot what a genius he is on sax, Ben Webster
            and the rest of the greats would want some lessons from him.
            I think someone should do a story about the guy, would be
            interesting to know is life story WOW.

            #52394
            Mel
            Participant

              Aubra definitely is great inspiration.

              #52436
              jak Swift
              Participant

                Man that’s a beautiful project. You have a Beautiful Lady…I’m all choked up !! KEEP AT IT KEITH….. Your beginning a long journey, and your doing fine. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. You come across as a very mellow guy. I really don’t want to spoil this, but you have to get into pushing from the diaphragm man…long tones, and blow through the horn , not into it. Other than that, fabulous !!
                Happy Anniversary, here’s to many happy years.
                Love to you both…. Jak

                #52438
                jak Swift
                Participant

                  Aubra is the greatest !!!!!

                  #52720
                  Keith Taylor
                  Participant

                    Thank you for taking the time to check it out and the kind words y’all. And yes, I do fully intend on continuing to work on it. I actually enjoy practicing now, and I think getting a tenor that isn’t holding me back has been a big part of that.

                    As far as Aubra Graves goes. As a commercial photographer that also gets paid to run video cameras – I’m actually going to try to see if I can drive over to Waco, TX (where Mr. Graves is from) and do recorded interview / documentry about him. I figure it’d worth it and a gift to the saxophone community because he’s so freakin’ good – yet hardly known it seems.

                    Here’s fun / interesting story about him. After I discovered him on YouTube I mentioned nothing of him to my teacher, Mace, because for some reason I was worried that he’d tell me he wasn’t really all that great – when I just thought his sound and playing was amazing. Well, finally I broke down and texted one of his video’s to Mace – the one of Mr. Graves playing “It Never Entered My Mind,” which I *LOVE* and told Mace that maybe I’d be able to play that well by the time I was Mr. Graves age.

                    Mace texted back pretty quickly and said something like, “You nor I will ever be able to play as well as him.” This shocked me because Mace is one badass sax player. Mace went on to tell me via text that it was funny I had sent him one of Aubra Graves video’s – because it was Aubra Graves that inspired him to play sax.

                    Mace grew up in Waco, TX too due to his dad being music professor there. I think his dad is a jazz trumpet player, so Mace told me that as a kid – as far back as he can remember – Mr. Graves would be out playing at various music events in town that his dad had exposed him too. According to Mace, Mr. Graves use to play alto a lot more, whereas now it seems that most everything on his channel is him playing tenor – which is fine by me since tenor is my favorite of the saxes.

                    Anyway, I thought it was very cool that I randomly found Mr. Graves on YouTube – and was kind of worried about sharing his stuff with Mace – who’s playing I also very much admire – and it turns out he’s Mace’s biggest influence.

                    But yeah, Mr. Graves is a very interesting guy to me, even though I know very little about him. All I really know is that he’s a retired mailman, and I *think* Mace said he’s a WWII vet too.

                    So, if he’s willing to do a video interview with me, I will definitely share it here on this forum when I’ve fininshed. I have all the video and audio gear to record it with. I’ve just got to find the time to do it – and try to get connected with him or his son – who I understand is who records and post all of his stuff online.

                    If you all are curious to hear Mace playing sax rather than piano like he’s doing in my video – check out this link.The audio isn’t great, but his playing makes up for that. It’s one of my favorites of him playing on YouTube. He has a very Lenny Pickett type sound going in it to me:

                    Thanks again for the kind words and taking the time to check out the video I did for my wife. It truly was a labor of love.

                    Keith

                    #52739
                    jak Swift
                    Participant

                      Love conquers all Keith !! Seems a good place to start. I’m listening now to Mace ; he’s a tremendous player !! If you listen to (load up…if you get time ). Kathy, by Lenny Pickett ( a dedication to his wife ) you will hear just how close they are. As for Aubra, what can I say ?? He is everything a tenor man should be. A truly remarkable guy. Even in a slow blues, you can feel the years of experience behind him. Man, ( oops !!) if this interview, footage comes together, it would be mind blowing. Aubra is slightly below the radar. His Son I believe shoots the clips, though I don’t know if he plays.
                      GO FOR IT KEITH !! You come across a such a nice guy, I’m right behind you all the way. Thank you for starting my day with such a fabulous tune, I’m going to try and order that today. Keep at it my friend, you’ll go far I promise !!….peace…jak

                      #52740
                      jak Swift
                      Participant

                        And please ask Mace what mpc he’s using. Tell him jaksax from Liverpool UK, thinks he’s a truly soulful player. ( I always say this, but if any of you are into the Beatles, I can send you, shirts, decals, keyfobs….no problem. I’ve been meaning to send Johnny something for a while, but have been driven half crazy trying to source a half decent tenorsax )

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