That Soprano Sound

Dave: I'm linking my clip from my personal webspace/site. If you email the clips to me, I'll be happy to host them and put the links up here in your behalf. (PS I don't want to do this for everyone)

When you email me be sure the total attachment is less than 10gb. Send one clip per email if you need to.


Edit: Dave, I sent you an email.
 
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Thanks, Glen. I e-mailed back two clips . . . one on my TT straight sop and one on my SC902. DAVE
 
pete said:
OK, so I did a little YouTube of me playing soprano. My tone sucks.

I'm a lot better on curved soprano. As I've mentioned before: it's not because the CS has inherently better or different tone, but because I play the soprano sax like a clarinet and ... that isn't right. I've got some other issues, as well, as you'll be able to hear.
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You were one of those kids who liked to pull the tail of the dog weren't you Pete? :-D ....But wait....I hear an oboe....;-)
 
The doggie doesn't like his tail pulled. He weighs 68lbs, so when he doesn't like something, you tend not to do it :).

I was going to comment something like, "And I'm sorry, but the rhythm section is a bit off, too, but I just threw the video together."

We all can agree that Coltrane was a genius and his music was revolutionary. However, listening to him play soprano -- and other people tagged as "great" that play the horn -- have made me come up with the conclusion that <voice="Barbie"> playing soprano sax is hard. </voice> That being said -- and even though I think Coltrane doesn't sound all that great on soprano -- when I think of "My Favorite Things", his is the tune that goes through my head. And I think he makes it work, to a great extent, even though it's got a bunch of shortcomings.

Maynard Ferguson was the absolute worst soprano player I evar heard.

I've heard a couple of very good soprano players, but almost all of them are affiliated with classical sax quartets/ensembles.

As far as Bechet is concerned, I'm happier with his rendition of "Summertime" than the one that Ed posted -- and one also has to take into account that his vibrato probably wasn't that fast; it's the recordings of the period.

(Oh. Terry: that video I just linked to has some nice shots of a full Boehm Selmer clarinet.)

BTB, to anyone that saw my first post: at least you weren't Rick Rolled.
 
Dave Dolson said:
Thanks, Glen. I e-mailed back two clips . . . one on my TT straight sop and one on my SC902. DAVE
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Dave's tunes:

"This is me alone in my family room.
Another fellow was taping me to use some clips in a lesson-plan on
trad-jazz improv. The sound will begin with his voice then I play at
around eight seconds. I used my 1928 Buescher TrueTone straight
soprano with a Super Session J mouthpiece and Java #2 reed.."

Tishomingo Blues‏


"This is me at a live concert done by Ulysses Jasz Band from
Santa Barbara a few years ago. I used my Yanagisawa SC902 with a
Super Session J and Java #2 reed. The tune is one written by Sidney
Bechet, a loose translation is IF YOU SEE MY MOTHER."

Si Tu Vois Ma Mere‏
 
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Dave,

You definitely have the Bechet vibe going and a
very mature and full sound. Those clips are very
reminiscent of the playing I heard in your living room
a few years ago. The first clip, that's done in your
living room, almost sounds brass/trumpet like.

How come your curved soprano sounds just like a straight soprano? :-D

It's very interesting how each persons soprano
"sound" can be so different. When you take different
alto or tenor players "sounds", though different, they
don't seem to be so extremely different like you get
on soprano.

Any other WWF members going to share their "sound"?

YouTube clips of dead people don't count, right Dave? ;-)
 
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Very nice Dave. (Thanks saxmanglen for making the exception and helping Dave get them posted.)

Yes Dave, you have a definite vintage sound going there. If I close my eyes and listen to Si Tu Vous Ma Mere, I imagine myself in a grand hotel's ball room in the early 20 century, while a band played. Very beautiful tone coming from the Yani.
 
Anyone who tags someone else's soprano sound as the "worst" has yet to hear mine. However, I have always ended up playing it in situations where a "bad soprano sax sound" was desired (period stuff, like Annie and the like, so it may well be a case of art imitating life imitating art.

Where most players go wrong with soprano sax (in my humble opinion) is with the vibrato. A little bit of that goes a very, very, very long way on the little horn...
 
Merlin said:
I think we should probably split this off into its own topic, but I haven't quite figured out how to that yet.
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Yeah, I was looking at the control panal and trying to figure out the same thing this AM. I thought I'd leave that in the capable hands of Pete, Ed, or Jim. :ugeek:
 
It has been done. I'll write a tutorial on moving/merging for our CE/Mod/Admin staff a bit later.
 
Rory: I listened to short clips by Getz and another by Monk at the iTunes store. I don't have that tune available to me but if I come across a complete version, I'll give it a listen. I realize there may be some tunes out there that I don't know about mainly because I don't listen to much written after say, 1934 (mostly 1920's stuff).

But there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of great tunes from "my" era that I DO know and I'm still discovering material from that era, too. The "modernists" don't trip my trigger and I rarely seek them out for new material.

Thanks for the nice words. DAVE
 
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