5 alto players in NY in one week

[Budget Explosion]

I just bought a new alto sax this week, so I decided to hit the clubs to look for inspiration...I saw two shows: Roy Nathanson's sax quartet at Tonic (with Marty Erlich and Roy on alto) and the three way alto battle of Vincent Herring, Sonny Fortune, and Gary Bartz...

Here is my subjective report

Roy and Marty played beautiful and inventive music with great use of altissimo and controlled split notes...hearing these two, I felt that I was a hack on the sax, and made me feel like selling my sax...probably like how guitar players felt when they saw Hendrix play. Nonetheless, sax quartets are hard to listen to for long, and at least half of the set bordered on intolerable.

Also, when I've bought Marty's records, they all seem boring to me (though SONG on Enja Records is pretty good to my ears)

The three way alto battle was pretty much straight bebop. The fireworks were pretty much limited to speed...very little was fresh or inventive (in my humble opinion.) Watching this show, I felt like I could play up there and hold me own if I practiced more, as this show wasn't about ideas, but speed and fluidity.

Oh well, if anyone else saw these shows, I'd love to hear your take on them.

[WG]

Wow, I wish I lived in the Big Apple :cry:

[Gandalfe]

Sometimes I feel Americans don't want to do anything unless they are pros. It takes years to play a sax well. Learning can be fun too. Just my rant o' the day.

[DanO]

Sometimes we all fail to relize that these top pro's represent probavly less than one percent of all the horn players in the world..

Ill probably never be good enough for anyone to want to pay to see me play. It certainly doesnt keep me from working my rump off..

I wish I lived in an area where I could go and see these players myself.

[PolteRGeisT]

I have been playing the alto saxophone for 2.5 years, and I'm becomming very discouraged. I can play some fairly complicated music with good technique (improving), but i sound like CRAP. Is this normal?? Most of you are far more exprienced than I am, would any of you have any advice to give to a frustrated student like myself? Is it my reed, the horn, the mouthpiece?? Or do I just need to give it some more time? help!!!

[DanO]

polter,
e-mail me with the following info:
Brand of sax,
make of mouthpiece,
usual reed used, then ill have more ?'s for ya

[Mat Price]

Anyone here think they sound GREAT I mean the best ?!?!. Well I have been playing since 5th grade I am now 28 so I got a few years in and sometimes I sit back and say good lord that sounds awful. When I listen to people like dale underwood and Dr. Rosseau I realize just how much further I can strive to go witch than makes me question my ability even more sometimes. My point is you can't expect to sound like these cats. They have been playing longer than I have been alive. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn't try. I have a theory the more advanced you get the more you understand and you reach a point where you seem to not be getting any better but in truth your just not understanding as well as you did before. Think about when you where in 8th grade and you where trying to master all your major scales you where full of so much knowledge that you didn’t think you could cram anything else in your little brain to work on. But alas it's time to learn minor scales and a new huge void opens up for you to fill. Well you get to a point where the voids get smaller and smaller and you’re working on tiny things for improvement but those tiny things are so complex that seem almost unattainable... until you attain them, and BANG something comes along and you have this huge void to fill again. I am usual happy with playing I always think I could be much better and strive everyday to do so. INHO 2 years on the horn is not enough time to even begin to understand it's complexities especially if you’re a young student. I have also learned the more I learn about other things like theory and history the better player I become. You make such huge leaps as a beginner and you get spoiled because when you become advanced it's harder to make those huge leaps.... or is it? I think in the smallest of terms and the smallest improvement is improvement therefore when for example I really get, understand and can play certain passages to my expectation it is a huge leap!