A Community for Up and Coming Musicians
Kurt Elling Live at Catalina’s 2-19-05 Kurt Elling has been my greatest vocal and melodic influence for the last few years. I first became inspired by his style with the album “The Man Up in the Air”. Being from Chicago, he rarely plays out in California, and last February 2005, he was out at Catalina’s, …
Continue reading “Review of a Kurt Elling performance in 2005”
The Unison sax company was started about 20 years ago by Shunwa Chang and at the time of writing, Rheuben Allen was president of the company (he now owns his own company). Unison has a few different models of saxophones including student saxes, the S Series saxophones and the new Hollywood Legend saxes. The S …
Continue reading “Review of Unison Saxophones”
At IAJE 2006, ARK Corporation’s GB saxophones were definitely something to take note of. These handmade French saxophones designed by Gilbert Bouton all played great. Their European design was very unique but had the basic core elements that still make them appealing here in the states. The designer, Gilbert Bouton is new in the US …
Continue reading “Review of the Gilbert Bouton Saxophones”
Founded by Bob Engel and John Harrington in 1995, Guitars and Saxes has since featured artists including Marc Antoine, Rick Braun, Steve Cole, Warren Hill, Mindi Abair, Wayman Tisdale, Jonathon Butler, Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, Peter White, Richard Elliot, Jeff Golub, and more. With 2006 marking its eleventh year on tour, the group’s popularity in …
Continue reading “Review of Guitars and Saxes at Thornton Winery”
This year at IAJE (2005), the Yellowjackets and Big Phat Band performed a concert the first night of the event. After I went to IAJE, I headed out to the concerts to watch the two groups perform for the first time (it wasn’t the first time they performed, it was the first time I saw …
Continue reading “Review of Big Phat Band and Yellowjackets in 2005”
Kilauea, a contemporary jazz group owned by Dean Whitney, started out in 1990 doing covers of tunes written by Russ Freeman of the Rippingtons. After ten successful years, the band members each began their own solo careers when the band contract expired, but in 2005 reunited for a reunion concert at the Catalina Jazz Festival. …
Continue reading “Review of the Kilauea Reunion in 2005”
This year I had the opportunity to go to the IAJE Conference in Long Beach on Saturday, the last day of the Convention. When you first walked in, you walked through aisles of schools with prestigious music programs. The was an array of attendees at the convention – from junior high band students to jazz …
Continue reading “Review of IAJE in 2005 [Archive]”
This is an archive article. The concert held at the Cerritos Center February 2005 was the first and only time I had the great opportunity to see the legendary Michael Brecker perform live. Being an avid Brecker listener, I really looked forward to attending this concert and I was not disappointed with the amazing performance. …
Continue reading “Review of Michael Brecker’s Performance at the Cerritos Center 2005”
This past weekend has been a whirlwind of music events, and I had the pleasure of seeing and sitting in with several great artists. The first event was a performance by Incendio where I had the chance to sit in on a few songs, you can read the review on Teen Jazz. Lin Rountree’s performance …
Continue reading “Review of Lin Rountree’s Performance at Spaghettini’s Sep 2, 2012”
Primarily being an Alto Player, my sound on Tenor Sax has been an issue. I’m always trying to figure out how I will sound best; which means I try not like an Alto Player playing Tenor and I’m searching for my “voice” on the instrument. I had been playing on a Meyer 7 Hard Rubber …
Continue reading “Review of the Jody Jazz DV Mouthpiece”
