Frankly, add 7:28 to that performance and you've probably got a hit.

 

A friend of mine is getting married this weekend. I'm a guest at the wedding. The other week he rang me up and asked if I would play for 10 minutes during the ceremony while they are signing the registers etc... i.e. to break the awkward silence while nothing much is happening...

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice???

Bear in mind that its only for about 10 minutes and will be in a church with echoey, flattering acoustics and I'm only doing it to help my friend out (i.e. I don't plan to do it ever again if I can help it)

Coincidently I recorded a mouthpiece demo last week for a mouthpiece I'm trying to sell which might give you an idea of how I approach playing unaccompanied:

Any tips/ideas/advice/songs ideas most appreciated.

O.K. - First of all, there's no way in h$ll that it's only going to be 10 minutes! Count on at least 20 minutes. Even if your friend has hired a wedding consultant, things will run longer and later than anyone thinks. Actually, if they're organizing the festivities themselves, be prepared for a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, and be ready to play 30 mins. If you accept that this is the likely scenario, then it will greatly help your friend, whose head will be swimming with myriad other thoughts. A "no problem" attitude from you will be the best wedding gift you could give.

You sound great, so don't worry about anything. The most important thing to remember is that you're the whole "band", and you have to really keep the groove all by yourself. One suggestion I would make is to play fairly well-known standards. People's minds will "fill in" the missing members of the "band" and your performance will be more well received. Play the melodies pretty straight so that everyone (or almost everyone) knows what song you're playing. Go ahead and take a chorus or two in the middle, then wrap it up. Make definite endings, be they a short "bop" or a long note where you milk the vibrato and fade away. If you can get behind some Beatles tunes, or other pop standards, that will be cool for the audience. Since you are sort of "background", I'd avoid playing much funky stuff. But if you get a small crowd around you, and you think it would fly, break out "Mercy, Mercy", "Hearbreak Hotel" (Elvis, not MJ), or any other song with a strong groove. It could be a cool little featured "concert" type moment.

Set up a camera in the far corner for some raw footage, and critique it afterward. You may even want to post part of it here. Have a great time, and let us all know how it went!

JB

 

If you can get behind some Beatles tunes, or other pop standards, that will be cool for the audience.JB

As far as tunes go, a Stevie Wonder medley (My Cherie Amour, You Are the Sunshine of My Life & Isn't She Lovely) usually goes down a treat on such occasions. Good Luck.

 

I would suggest slow/medium tempo songs- recognizable by the audience, and in your second and third verses, don't get too far from the main tune. I don't know that bebop is appropriate for background music. Think of yourself as elevator music. Smooooothe Jazz.:bluewink:

 

Very nice playing. You've got the skills to do a great job at this without any backing tracks. The "echoey, flattering acoustics" are clearly on your side. Pick a few recognizable love songs that people know. Have fun. As long as you stay close to the head, they will all talk about you in a flattering way after.

 

Great suggestions already. My $0.02 worth, pick out enough tunes for your 10 minutes. If it goes long, simply repeat the set until you're told to quit! I doubt many, if any will remember the tunes until the third time through! Especially, if you're "just" playing fairly quietly in the background while other stuff is going on!

Good luck! Sounds like it could be fun! Make it so and a memorable occasion for your friend as well!

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice???

Don't do it. Tell your friend that a saxophone isn't the best choice of instrument for what he has in mind no matter who plays it. Serious. Ignore everyone else in this thread that tells you otherwise. Trust me.

 

Tell your friend that a saxophone isn't the best choice of instrument for what he has in mind no matter who plays it.

Yeah, tell him to get an erhu and a Tuvan throat singer and then he'll be on a winner!

 

People often ignore me -- with good reason. Go for it. Take a fake book with you and play from that.

 

A Vuvuzela might be the ticket, is that what you're saying?

 

Okay, my family does this thing where we visit all the folks back in New York every Labor Day, and every year I am pretty much required to play for the whole family because they're so proud of me and all that jazz. Not that I mind, but sometimes I feel like I have no idea what to play and I dread this feeling I get that I won't know what to play for them because they've already heard pretty much everything I can do when I'm asked to play a solo spot without any prepared material. But I've found out that, for the most part, one little book can get me through those spots without hassle.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Gershwin-by-Special-Arrangement/3803662

A George Gershwin book. My folks always want me to play this stuff, even though I play it for them every year. It's great, it's got a nice collection of the standards with a chorus or two of written out solos in each which are actually very nice, and the backing CD for them if you think it will help you/the audience to have the rhythm section playing. If my memory serves me well, it should be at least twenty minutes of decent well-known music. If you want to use it, I'd say you should get it soon to give yourself at least a couple of days or so to get all the solos down. They aren't going to be crazy like the stuff you'd get out of the Charlie Parker Omnibook, but they're not for beginners either, but that's part of what makes them good for actual performances. Judging from what you played on that Youtube video, you can get these down in two days or less. And you can probably find this book in a Sam Ash or comparable music store.

 

I did this once, years and years ago. It wasn't that hard actually - the acoustics in a church help greatly in avoiding playing too many notes. I have no idea what tunes -or tune- I played, but i guess it was just ballads. I don't know any pop stuff. People loved it. It's not at all about the tunes, but about the athmosphere it creates.
Oh, I just remembered I started out with the familiar Mendelssohn bridal march.

Anyway, don't worry too much. You'll do great - you do it for your friend, and the occasion will put you in the right mood right away.

Good luck!

Reine

 

Weddings.. Played few of those.. My advice? Do you play the soprano sax? Whenever I play soprano people LOVE it (I get compliments) but when I play alto or tenor people generally don't say anything. I just played soprano on my wife's cousin's weddings. "Love and Marriage" and "Speak softly love". They did the trick! The Stevie Wonder medley is a good idea. Another idea is to play a medley of Sinatra songs. Most of the people recognise those songs. "Love and Marriage", "Fly me to the moon" etc. should work!

All the Best!

 

I emailed my friend the youtube link and asked him to let me know if that sort of thing would be 'ok' or not.

Thanks for the advice all!

Tunes I'm thinking of at the moment are:
Stardust
Loverman
Misty

maybe for a bit of a joke:
Get me to the church on time??
When I'm 64
Lets Face the Music and Dance (i.e. there maybe trouble ahead

I'd rather play tunes I actually know and I don't really know or have listened to much pop stuff.
And no I don't play soprano.

Oh well. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

you play very well,nice tone so to play unaccompanied, would be fine, i would keep the songs melodic, dont get away from the melody too much, so they can relate to what you are playing,,tunes that come to mind?..fly me to the moon, night and day,have you met miss jones,etc three popular jazz standards that most people would know..

 

I did this last week for my brothers wedding while they were signing the register , it was great and lasted about 9 minutes . In which time I played 3 tunes - one which they had requested ( always a woman - Billy Joel ) and 2 others . I actually was a bit in awe of the surroundings , which was a very grand English church and decided at the last minute to play ' Amazing Grace and started with a couple of verses of it .

Whatever you decide to play , i'd go with something you know very well as no matter how expereinced you are , it's quite an exciting/nervey thing to do and best if you know it inside out .

have fun - and milk the acoustics!

 

Misty, I've got Crush on You, But not For Me, Stardust. Gershwin and Rogers&Hart--where would we be without 'em + Hoagy and Errol of course!
I've done quite a few. Dont use a high baffle m/ piece--but you wont anyway!

 

Stick very close to the melody, make it background and pretty.

 

My friend emailed me saying I'm down in the order of service as 'Jazz Interlude' so I guess that leaves it open for me to pretty much play what I want... I don't think I'll go down the Albert Ayler free jazz route this time though

I'm thinking:

Stardust
Fly Me to the Moon
I'm getting married in the morning
Perhaps Misty or Loverman

 

Add "Blue Skies" to your reportoire as well My (now) wife loved it (as did everyone else) when I surprised her with me playing it for her (w/my Dad on String Bass) at our wedding (on Alto Sax). Yes, different moment, different situation, but always a hit!

Edit: I still retain the above, though it no longer applies to the OP. It can, however, still be useful for anyone else reading this post .

 

You've got the chops, that's for sure. Good suggestions with Gershwin and Stevie, you want to play stuff people know, but you don't want to gather a crowd or draw undue attention - you're not the star, the happy couple are. You're live Muzak. Also, I'd avoid songs with a negative romantic connotation - Lover Man (oh where can he be)...Mercy Mercy?....Speak Softly Love - The Godfather? Your ideas for "joke" tunes are actually right on the money in my book.

 

I concur with others that you have excellent chops, and you get a fantastic tone from your setup. However, I beg to differ about not needing backing tracks. As noted, you're playing listening Muzak. People/clients say they want a sax because they've heard it with smooth jazz on the radio or albums or whatever, where inevitably there's a chord structure and groove backing up the sax sound. They often don't process the second part. Playing by yourself sticking to the melody, however sweetly, will sound like some guy busking at a METRO stop. Playing by yourself with all the noodling will sound like an artsy hip abstract concert that is about YOU instead of the couple.

+1 to watch what you play and the connotations of the lyrics. This sat I'll be playing for a bride who wanted Mercy Mercy Me because it sounded hip and jazzy- only it's about mercury in the fish and radiation underground... I talked her into having me play "Aint no Mountain High Enough" for the recessional.

Get a couple karaoke tracks from itunes if you've got a powered speaker or something.

 

Thanks everybody for the advice.

I managed to have a quick half an hour practice in my village church today to get an idea of what acoustics are going to be like, even though it will be a different church tomorrow.
It sounded quite nice but it was LOUD!!!! I don't think there is much hope of it being just in the background. Hopefully if the church is full of people that will deaden the sound somewhat?
I think it is too late for me to start worrying about backing tracks etc... I'm down as 'Jazz Interlude by Liam' so I will just try and play some jazz then go enjoy the wedding and forget about it.

I used my zoom to record a bit of my practice in church today but unfortunately the batteries ran out after 5 minutes so the only clip is were i'm playing a reed which is a bit too hard:

Like suggested I think I will stick close to melodies and just embellish them. My bop licks tended to just create a wall of noise with all the reverb. diminished arpeggios sounded cool though!
I'm going to stick to jazz standards that I know fairly well. Stardust, nightingale sang, sentimental mood + round midnight sounded half decent. Wave worked ok as well. Fly me to the moon wasn't so good? The melody doesn't do much so its hard milk it out?

Oh well... Heres hoping I don't ruin the wedding!

 

How about "Sunrise, Sunset" (from Fiddler on the Roof) for the parents? And don't forget to modulate a step the second time around!

 

Europa!!!!!

 

Very nice stuff. You have nice sound. You will do fine. Don't worry a bit about backing tracks. If you are only playing for 10-15 minutes it won't get old, and you won't sound like a busker.

 

Don't sweat it. Sounds like some guys have had traumatic experiences, but as someone who's done the solo thing (AND busking in the subway LOL), it's not bad at all. Just don't go in with the attitude of, "I'm here to play schmaltzy crap that these tasteless fools won't even listen to." That comes through in your playing, loud and clear. As for rep, I'd second a bunch of Stevie tunes, "Overjoyed," "Cherie Amour," "You Are The Apple of My Eye," etc. Also things like "Going To The Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups, which parents or grandparents will like, and you can find a bunch of nice stuff to play in a book of Bach flute music that lays very well on sax. Scavenge popular songbooks of artists who deal heavily in melody: The Beatles, Simon/Garfunkel, James Taylor, BeeGees, Alicia Keys (much as I can't stand her!), Norah Jones, Regina Spektor, etc. Doesn't HAVE to be something they know, just sound good coming out of the horn. Play soft, but don't sweat the volume too much, as you assumed, it will be MUCH dryer sounding when the room is full, and people will be talking. Don't do everything down tempo, either, or be afraid to put some balls in your playing.

Also, +1 to avoiding sounds with the wrong lyrics... people know them. You don't want to play "The Lady Is A Tramp," "Let's Get Drunk And Screw" (though you can get away with that in the north) or "I Used To Love Her (But I Had To Kill Her)."

 

So how did it go?

My preference to play over tracks at parties stem not from any bad experiences just playing literally solo, but rather from the consistently positive feedback I have received in all my gigs where I play with tracks pumped thru my JBL EON loudspeaker at my side. I had two such gigs this weekend- a wedding Saturday, and a birthday party at a restaurant yesterday. On Sat the bride and groom came up to me after the ceremony and told me that the sound was exactly what they wanted. At the bride and groom's request, I played "You're still a young man" for the (aged) groom's entrance. It would have sounded kind of sparse and even non-sensical to play it without the backing track (there IS one available complete with the screaming trumpet intro).

Yesterday, the client told me afterward that his mother (the birthday "girl"; who was seated facing away from me) thought she was listening to a real jazz album until it was pointed out to her it was me playing sax live, at which point she turned and looked pleasantly surprised.

This is not to say that solo sax can't sound fantastic and artsy. It certainly can (Michael Brecker's solo riffs amaze me), and it sounds like you were given a rare platform for a flat-out artsy performance. But I still believe, on balance, that playing a sax with a harmonic and rhythmic background is really the sound most listeners in this general assembly-ceremony context would expect and prefer.

 

So how did it go?

Yeah, it went well. I don't think I ruined the wedding anyway. It was probably even less than 10 minutes worth of playing. Quite a lot of people came up to me through out the rest of the day and said they enjoyed my playing and my friend seemed more than happy but perhaps that was the alcohol

It has got me quite interested in the 'Unaccompanied Jazz Saxophone Solo' and I've been researching various classic recordings. There are a couple of Coleman Hawkins solo recordings which are interesting but my favourites so far are definitely Sonny Rollins's versions of 'Body and Soul' and 'It Could Happen to You'.

I understand what you are saying about backing tracks and I guess that is probably what the general public would prefer but IMO, and I don't mean this to cause any offence, I just find any performance with backing tracks a bit lame, especially so with tenor.

But as I said I am not planning on doing this for work. I'd rather just pursue this 'Artsy/Bloke busking in the Subway' route as I have a romantic vision in my head of 'lonely jazz man (i.e me) busking late at night somewhere' and sounding ****ing hip as ****!

...................... a bit like 'bleeding gums' murphy!