A beautiful challenge.

[jak Swift]

Good Afternoon folks; the start of another playing week. Firstly, I loved the ” blind men ” reference William and hope you are happy with your downloads.
So, my alto chops. I’ve been watching a load of Johnny Hodges clips on you tube. Man, what a player he was. In short ; that is the alto embouchure I’m striving for. Just a tiny bit of mpc taken in, it is the hardest challenge I’ve had in a long time. No hours of endless noodling; just total concentration on staying loose. Its most certainly coming, but I have to be so careful. If I let that bottom lip bulge, or tighten, the reed just closes. This aggravates a chest pull I’ve had for many years. It is however coming together nicely…..I’m happy with the progress so far.
Speaking of beautiful things…..
On you tube there is a clip of Johnny Hodges’ alto. Man its a work of art. Owned by Frank Wess ( at the time of the clip ), it is made by ” Vito “.
It has JH’ s name engraved around the bell, and just about every key is embellished. The octave mechanism is a ” snake head “, complete with diamond chips for eyes. I’ve tried my best to describe, you really need to check it out if you are interested.

[jak Swift]

Other news……
Somebody is trying to hack me. Grrrr !!! Sending mails saying my E mail address is the same as their personal mail address. They have to use ” upper case ” in part, and are obviously waiting for me to reply and then they have mine. Its going to be a long wait !!
I couldn’t resist buying a Runyon Quantum. The metal #6 not the Delrin. The price was good, and its a mpc that suits my embouchure. It will be great for the embouchure studies above, whilst having a bright gnarly tone. I mentioned ” Frankenstein ” a few days back; that kind of thing. I may be wrong but I think ” pick up the pieces ” is played on alto on the AWB album…
That’s all folks !! I hope everybody is well and wish you all a safe and happy week…..

[john]

ya Jak I heard about those Runyons let us know how it goes.
not 100% sure but from what I remember about AWB is they had one guy on alto and another guy on tenor….one played bari as well.
I think on pick up the pieces it was an alto and tenor doing the moody together and the tenor took the solo

[jak Swift]

Hey Johnny, good to see you again man. I was going to watch a movie, but I’m in a reflective mood.
If I could do this whole sax thing over again; without a doubt I would have stuck with my bari. When I was a lot younger, man I could really play.
In music college I was listening to the likes of Dave Edge ( a classmate ). Last I heard of Dave, he was playing with John Surmann. Just a great tenor player. I came close in the nineties, with a 10M and a Berg Fatboy, often getting complements for my tone. It didn’t go much further; I couldn’t make the jump from an average to a great player. Looking at the likes of Greg Piccolo; I realised I was always going to be just that….an average player.
That’s why I’ve decided to follow my heart and focus totally on this alto project. So far so good. If I can nail this chops thing, and move from bottom to top in one seamless flow; the door is open for some great playing.
The Johnny Hodges embouchure style is, as I said a real challenge, but certainly within reach and over time. A lot of reed soaks, and yeah this new mpc coming. Quantum made by Runyon are fabulous mpcs. So slim, they are barely there. For my slim jawline, a great choice.
If you look at the Ellington clips, all the alto chairs are using the Hodges style. I’m right on the cusp of it; its one of those things that is just going to click into place…..hopefully sooner rather than later, but no hurry.
Finally, I think I can speak for all of us in saying thanks Johnny, for all of it. The clips, backing tracks, but more so for just being a nice guy. Supportive, encouraging and without ego. A rare thing for a guy of your standing and talent.
Take it easy man, and again …..thankyou !!

[jak Swift]

As for the AWB; it really doesn’t matter, but yeah the tenorsax does take the solo. What blows me away, is the fact a bunch of guys from a Small Scottish town, became one of the best soul outfits ever. Man those guys could ( and still do funk !!).
” Work to do ” is one of my favourite all time tunes. To be played at #11…..LOUD !!!
I will keep you posted as to my progress, and let you all know when the Runyon comes.
Have a safe & happy weeks folks….

[Anonymous]

@Jak – the Johnny Hodges clip was quite interesting, thanks for sharing

[jak Swift]

Your more than welcome Sxpoet. Sorry I deleted the discussion by accident. After I sussed out somebody was trying to hack me, I’ve been ultra careful. All mails, drafts, spam, going back months has been binned. I’ll be about later if you wanted to chat.

[jak Swift]

And the Runyon is in the post….YEAH !!
The Hodges embouchure is a longterm idea; much like trying to get a Getz tone on tenorsax. Some days, like today, I just want to play at full throttle.
Its going well…..

[jak Swift]

I’ve been checking out some Vito’s on e bay. They range from real cheap, to super expensive.
Le blanc worked with Vito to produce a ” system rationale “…. If your interested in the concept its all there on the web; I couldn’t begin to explain and only have a rough idea as to the workings. I do know a couple of guys that play ” SR ” and really like them. We,ll see…..
Yup…..its been a good day.

[Anonymous]

@Jak – i read an article somewhere from a mouthpiece maker, that some mouthpiece’s are specifically designed to work with certain saxophones (in relation to the internal design .. bore sizes, neck etc..), so with the wrong sax, no matter what you do, the mouthpiece wont produce the perfect sound, in tone and pitch across all the registers (something to do with the sound waves in relation of the mouthpiece size to the saxophone internals, messess up the sound waves finaly coming out the bell, its similar to messing about and changing the distance between the holes would mess up all tuning of the pitches)

Anyway … too much physics and sound waves for my mind and liking.
All i know is when i switched to using the metal guardalla alto king in January, i’m amazed at all the things i can do with this mouthpiece which never happened on the last 5 mouthpieces i owned, and wasn’t possible to do.
It’s completely swung me over to using metal full time. Whatever you want to do in your head, this mouthpiece makes it happen… unbelievable.

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