Greetings from the Wicklow mountains!

[Robin Challis]

Hi y’all! I’m Robin, living in the Wicklow mountains, south of Dublin, Ireland. I’m 58, picked up my first sax when I was a student at Oxford aged 21, but couldn’t afford my own sax until about 18 or so years ago, which is when I started properly. Bought a Boosey & Hawkes alto – not a good choice, bit of a tank. Got RSI (repetitive strain injury) in my arm from being a little too keen to get things going so had to take a couple of years out to re-learn my body. Early lessons from a lady called Carol Nelson, who plays in a band called Zrazy. Next bought a Buffet Evette alto, much sweeter, and got some great foundational lessons from Serge Stavila – epic player – had me doing long notes for five years. Graduated to a Selmer III-series alto and forked out for a Dave Guardala mouthpiece. Then four years ago moved onto tenor – picked up a great second-hand Yamaha YTS-62, which is what I’m working on mainly these days – now with a Gregory Hollywood bakerlite 5M mouthpiece: really nice but I can’t help itching to get a metal mouthpiece for that greasy King Curtis sound. Couple of years ago, on holiday in Nice, France found a beaten up soprano, which Serge renovated. It’s a Millereau (never heard? not a surprise), dated probably sometime around 1890 – ancient, even has a double octave key .. like double de-clutching in a car. Not a speedster, but I love it, has a nice tinny New Orleans sound and I was pumping out Sidney Bechet for a while. Also good for playing traditional Irish music. Anyway, my main thing now is tenor. I played with the Trinity House Band, when I went back to Trinity College Dublin last year to do an MSC – which was really great .. playing with other people is the only way (IMHO). Nowadays, working with a couple of friends – electric guitar and bass – in an amateur kind of way. Influences – well, where do you start? But Dexter Gordon always comes up. Also have a fondness for Gene Ammons. And of course the late great Bobbie Keys. Love the website and looking forward to getting stuck in to developing my sound and technique, rocking’ rollin’ jazzing’ and a-honkin’. Good to meet you all!

[john]

Hey Robin, nice story! glad you found us.
I used to listen to Ammons a lot too and Curtis is one of my big heroes
and of course I toured for 2 weeks alongside Bobbie during one of Keith Richard’s tours too!
Sounds like you’re on the right track with the horns etc….good luck!

Johnny

[Charlotte Stephens]

Wow awesome – I love trad irish music, and being from Down Under, We don’t get a lot here 🙂 in fact, I’m glad to hear that there is sax music for trad irish music, let me know where i can find some! I used to play fiddle but not very well, as my ear isn’t great. Decided the fiddle needs frets. Anyways, welcome to the sax site 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi Charlotte, welcome to the forum.

I’ve just ordered this little book for myself, as it has a selection of 50 Irish tunes and has a five star rating.

Irish Folk Songs

You will need to transpose the tune if you want to play at the correct pitch, but that’s not too difficult if you use Crescendo which is free.

Crescendo free notation software site

[Charlotte Stephens]

Ah awesome i will give crescendo a go too

[Anonymous]

Charlotte, you can download this handy ruler as a transposing and key lookup reference.

Music ruler

I see that there are a whole series of those Irish song books available!

[Robin Challis]

Hi Charlotte and Jeff,

Here’s a couple of pieces you should check out – Finore by Moving Hearts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xTZcdoOjjs or The Storm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5McFnKo_L0 – with the great Keith Donald on sax. His website is: http://www.keithdonald.com

I play tin whistle tunes on the sax sometimes. Only slight difference in fingering (assuming you’re coming from a standard D whistle) is you’re playing in the scale of D, so middle key F sharp on the sax versus third hole up on the whistle.

All best

Robin

[Anonymous]

Hi Robin, it’s nice to hear from someone in Ireland.

I really like the Finore tune. I enjoy these fast paced mystical sounding tunes.

What is that ‘arm pumping’ bagpipe type instrument called?

[Robin Challis]

Hi Jeff, they’re called the uillean (pronounced ‘ill-ian’) pipes. They have a heart-wrenchingly sweet plaintive sound – nothing like the Scottish bagpipes. Here’s a clip for ye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq3m_R3Lnu4

[Anonymous]

Hi Robin, thanks for the info. I’m 56 and it’s the first time I’ve seen this instrument. I had always presumed the sound to be a combination of flutes and bagpipes.

Now that I know what to look for I’ve found there are quite a few videos.

Great stuff!

[Author]

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