Been listening to Coleman Hawkins and I notice he has a very breathy sound that I really like, it almost sounds like he’s talking or thru the instrument. I’m merely a beginner, but was just wondering if it was his technique or his reed/instrument or a combination of both.
Any thoughts.
yes, it’s all those things. mostly it’s his own personal thing which is embouchure and air control. personal choices with reeds and mouthpieces of course will contribute by allowing the player to do what they want to do. as for that beautiful breathy sound my favorite is Ben Webster, I put up a blog post on him a little while ago where you can give a listen to this: https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/ben-webster
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