@ Johnny–just a few days ago I shared that very same article in your blog with a local Sax player here whose a fan of contemporary jazz (nothing wrong with that kind of music at all, there’s some good stuff in there for sure) I had mentioned to him that some of the world’s greatest solos used only a handful of notes and he was disagreeing with me, so I showed him that article and we listened to those solos. I had also mentioned to him to listen to Big Jay Mcneely’s playing because in many of his licks/riffs he used a single note! An eye opener for sure, sounds great too. He had never heard of Big Jay or King Curtis.

@ Jake–Thanks for sharing that Jake, sounds like you’re really feeling comfortable on your Guardala 🙂 Your tone is getting much more open and clean, that is cool! You obviously have an MP that you feel comfortable with and it’s working for you….now, just listen…and listen….and listen….and listen…and listen (LOL) to Clarence Clemmons and get his sound in your head, just like you said. Once you have it burned in your mind, you’ll be able to get it to project out of your Saxophone. I just don’t get along with metal MPs, not sure why. I heard some great news that Nadir is going to be releasing the Guardalas but in Ebonite….that really caught my attention and got me excited! I’m hoping when Johnny heads out to the NAMM show in 2017 that they’ll have some of those on hand to be able to try and let us know what his take is on them. For me, I’m the kind of player who prefers the comfort of hard-rubber but loves the projection of metal, so Ebonite MPs work perfect for me because I get the best of both worlds with an Ebonite MP. Great job Jake, keep at it 🙂