I have the 14 blues and funk exudes book but mine is in B-flat. I’m not sure if they made it in E flat as well. Mintzer’s method book (“playing the saxophone”) is very good. For more alto specific stuff, I would get “Comprehensive jazz studies and exercises“ book by Eric Marienthal.

 

I have been looking at the Eric Marienthal books too, thanks for the tip!

I love the books and find the etudes lots of fun to play, and great pedagogically (particularly for getting my fingers tangulated). They are a go-to source of enjoyment for me and help me keep practicing. I've pretty much worked my way through "Easy" and have started on "Medium-Easy." Personally, I wouldn't let the "easy" part fool you; these is easy for Bob Mintzer to play, not me!

The backing tracks are all played by Bob on his tenor. So if you have the E-flat version, as I do, then you are playing along with Bob on tenor. Sometimes he plays what you play, other times he'll be down an octave. The best part is matching his tone and style, which I find helps a lot.

Great books and highly recommended by me (as if that counts for anything!)

That's what I remember as well, but it's also what I didn't like about playing the Eb version compared to the Bb version on tenor. The melodies just doesn't feel right on the alto because of the jumps in octaves. Maybe I'm just picky. Anyway, I think I will try some more alto-centric literature first and maybe save the mintzer books for tenor. Or just buy the Bb versions and transcribe for alto.

My favourite etude was the one called "fourthright", just loved that one!

 

OK now I am confused. Went and looked at all my sax books and Bob mintier has the one called 14 blues and Funk, but he also has one named 14 jazz and Funk études. This is very confusing because the books almost have the same title but they are different. By accident I put in the CD for one and tried to play the other and it didn’t match of course. Be careful.

from what I can see now by looking carefully at both books, the blues and Funk book was only available in B-flat and came with a CD. The jazz and Funk book came with a CD as well but it was available in an E flat version.

if anyone here has the jazz and Funk CD backing tracks in the key of E flat please let me know.

 

I have this. The backing tracks are the same for both the Bb and Eb, with just different key signatures on the sheet music (as is usually the case with these things, though I have occasionally seen some other playalongs where the tracks differ but written key remains constant for Bb and Eb instruments).

My collection of Bob Mintzer playalongs include:
Bob Mintzer- 12 Contemporary Jazz Etudes for Bb Instruments
Bob Mintzer - 12 Medium-Easy Jazz, Blues and Funk Etudes for C Instruments
Bob Mintzer - 14 Blues & Funk Etudes for Bb & Eb Instruments
Bob Mintzer - 14 Jazz & Funk Etudes for Bb & Eb Instruments
Bob Mintzer - 15 Easy Jazz Blues Funk Etudes for Bb & Eb Instruments

He sure makes it confusing with those titles, doesn't he?

 

Do any of you think they are worthwhile for an alto player?

I love the books and find the etudes lots of fun to play, and great pedagogically (particularly for getting my fingers tangulated). They are a go-to source of enjoyment for me and help me keep practicing. I've pretty much worked my way through "Easy" and have started on "Medium-Easy." Personally, I wouldn't let the "easy" part fool you; these is easy for Bob Mintzer to play, not me!

The backing tracks are all played by Bob on his tenor. So if you have the E-flat version, as I do, then you are playing along with Bob on tenor. Sometimes he plays what you play, other times he'll be down an octave. The best part is matching his tone and style, which I find helps a lot.

Great books and highly recommended by me (as if that counts for anything!)

 

How do these comapre to the Greg Fishman etudes books - if anybody has used them both and knows.

 

The Greg Fishman etudes have a bit different style compared to the Mintzer books, but they definitely have the advantage for Eb instruments that they have to play-along CDs with the rhythm section playing in different keys so that the written part stays the same for Eb and Bb.

 

Bob Mintzer has some great books! Works great for tenor and I think it also works for alto, although I've only played 15 Easy Jazz, Blues and Funk Estudes on alto. I'd think most Mintzer books would work great on any type of saxophone.

 

The Mintzer etudes are great. I haven't really taken the time to sit down and learn a whole one, but I regularly pull them out for a little bit of quick reading practice and will often try to steal a lick or a run here and there. I am a "learn by doing" kind of person, so seeing how he approaches a chord change (or a lack of chord changes) is really interesting to try to get inside.

The backing tracks are also fun to mess around with.

 

I also like using the Mintzer etude books for sight reading practice - the Blues/Funk has some interesting rhythmic stuff that is easy to hear but difficult to read. The Greg Fishman books are more technically difficult and require more practice to get the etudes up to snuff (especially the stuff at the really burnin' tempos) but aside from the ballads they are pretty straight-ahead rhythmically speaking.

The Fishman books also uses a lot of contrafacts (some blues & rhythm changes tunes in each book as well) so they can be helpful if you're wanting to develop vocabulary for playing over standards.