Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Tenor Sax): An Anniversary Present For My Wife

[jak Swift]

Finally, if you are into blues guitar, a coupla names to check. ( you may already know them )
Kelly Joe Phelps. Out of NYC, he divides his stuff between, ” singing \ guitar ” albums…
Roll away the stone.
Sky like a broken clock
The shine eyed Mr Zen.

Then he does, lapstyle finger picking, slide. I’m not familiar with albums featuring solely this, but you tube have a ton of his stuff, a remarkable player.

Second off. Chris Smither. Out of Nashville, he’s an amazing storyteller, guitar player. Check them out, hope you enjoy them !!

[Keith Taylor]

First, William, I missed your comment the other dAy when Last replied to Jak. Thank you, Sir. I appreciate the compliment and you taking time to check it the video.

Jak,

I wouldn’t call myself a martial artist. I was in it back in my early twenties – and more recently was pretty into Aikido. I loved it, but realized I couldn’t afford to get hurt doing it to the point where I could work since I was self-employed. So, I had to let that interest go – and then took up swing dancing in its place. Which is surprisingly similar as far as timing and balance goes. It’s just a lot less painful.

Yes, Mace has played and recorded with him along with a whole lot of other extremely talented musicians. I hate you can’t watch the link to the studio version of Hear Me Now I linked to – but hopefully you’ve been able to find it on iTunes or Amazon. I’m loving that song even more now.

In regards to your whole recent experience having a stack fall on your bari and then the whole mugging thing and your arm. Wow, what a string of bad luck, and no wonder it got you down and depressed. You seem to be a very upbeat and positive guy now, though, so, good for you for bouncing back. Also, not sure that it matters, but I briefly played bari in concert band when I was in high school myself. Never got that into it though – probably because my parts for it were pretty boring. But, if you’re a bari fan, check out Will Scruggs album titled “Bluebari Jam.” In it he’s playing his bari. He’s another Atlanta, GA based player – and it’s a great album.

As self-employed photographer that has struggled a lot at times – and has had to figure out to create great work without having the latest and greatest gear – I totally get where you’re coming from in regards to having people that have more money than sense. I’m a huge believer that it’s more the person with the camera than it it is the gear. The gear certainly can help, but it’s the person. That’s why I was saying that I’m trying not to get too hung up on feeling like I have to have a a certain mouthpiece in order to play something that sounds good. I’ve got a decent pro level tenor, and two mouthpieces – my Jumbo Java, and my V16. And if Mace can make a factory V16 sound that good – even though it’s a larger tip opening than mine – that tells me it’s not my mouthpiece that’s the issue – it’s me.

I do admit that I’ve played a Theo Wanne Shiva Destroyer and loved it – but can’t justify paying $600 for one right now. I did break down an buy one of the Reed Geek Klanbogen’s for my horn along with the Versa ligature not long before I recorded this video because I still felt I didn’t sound as good as I wanted to. So I felt if that extra $130 spent on them both helped with it just a little that it was worth it considering how much time and money I had invested in the project at that point anyway.

Turns out, the Klanbogen did make a difference for me in regards to how my horn plays. I can’t really hear the difference, but I can feel it, if that makes any sense. Kind of odd that attaching what is pretty much just a weight to the top of the horn can do. It is a resonant instrument though, so it makes sense that it can, or would, effect it some. And the different plate and flap options on the Versa ligature makes a difference too.

I’ll try to figure out how to PM you on here – but if by chance I can’t – my email address is: keithtaylorphotography at gmail dot com Email me there and mention something about this forum in the subject line. congrats on getting a new tenor. You said it was a decent one, and it sounds like you play well enough that you can make most any horn sound good. Again, glad to hear you’re on the mend after what sound to be a really rough couple of years for you.

In regards to the teaching. I certainly am not interested in paying anybody $75 an hour how to teach me to play learn a scale. I can do that on my own. What I need more help with is critique on my styling, articulation, technique etc. How to do stuff that I hear other sax players doing but don’t know how to do myself. I think that’s where the value of a good private teacher comes in my opinion. Them being able to find specific things you need to improve on and then telling you how to do it – or what to work on to help with i

I’d say send me a Beatles luggage tag if such a thing exist. I’d put it on my sax case and it’d make me think of Jak Swift in England. But, it’d likely cost you more to mail it to me than it’d be for me to buy one here.

I’ll check out the blues players you mentioned. And yes, I love slide guitar, and dabble around with a bit too. One of my clients is Mike Snowden of http://www.SnowdenGuitars.com

He makes some beautiful cigar box guitars – one of which I own – and it’s fun to play. I keep it in open G tuning. That combined with its higher action and it only having three strings makes it easier to mess around with on a slide than a regular guitar. Here’s a video project I did a couple of years back about him. You will likely appreciate it:

Video

K.

[Keith Taylor]

Here’s a better link to that video project about Mike Snowden I did:

[Anonymous]

Hi Keith, you have set the bar really high for the rest of us husbands – LOL.
What a wonderful anniversary gift!

I had a look at your pictures too, they are very good.
I particularly liked the one with the chap and his big dog in the bakkie.

[Author]

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