[Jazz Is All]

I've listened to Gilad a lot over the past several years since he came on the International scene...or the UK scene anyway....and really enjoy his playing. His performance of Nature Boy is probably my favorite cover of that standard. In this piece of music he plays with a tone that is so nasal it sounds like he's playing a Shenai or some instrument other than an alto sax. I know his tone and sound has nothing to do with the orientalized scales he is playing nor with his setup because part way into the number his sound goes back to his normal tonality. So WTH is he doing to get it? Is he biting, squeezing really hard, sucking the mpc in farther down his gullet, doing nasal breathing or what. Beats me, but I think it's great for the music he is playing here. Anyone know?

 

[1saxman]

Overblowing and putting the lower lip pressure farther up on the reed. Takes a real player to be able to do these things.

 

[Jazz Is All]

Overblowing and putting the lower lip pressure farther up on the reed. Takes a real player to be able to do these things.

Yeah thanks, that was what I was getting at when I guessed taking in so much more mpc. I know that it makes it go nasal and wonky when I eat too much reed, which is the exact thing we've been taught to avoid. LOL. He really is great IMO because here he uses it to his advantage with the scales and eastern melodies he's playing. He probably has a hard reed and a high baffle piece too to aid in that.

 

[JL]

I also think I hear some sort of electronic effects (delay? reverb?). Also, notice how he moves to a different mic (at 1:15) and some of those effects seem to disappear, but not entirely.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I also think I hear some sort of electronic effects (delay? reverb?). Also, notice how he moves to a different mic (at 1:15) and some of those effects seem to disappear, but not entirely.

Hmmmm....I'll listen and watch again and see if I can suss that out. You never see his feet so you couldn't see a pedal is there was one. It sure is a very distinct sound at the beginning I know that.

 

[1saxman]

Its a lot easier to do the 'eastern' thing on a soprano.

 

[JL]

Hmmmm....I'll listen and watch again and see if I can suss that out. You never see his feet so you couldn't see a pedal is there was one. It sure is a very distinct sound at the beginning I know that.

Yeah, I can't say for sure, but I don't think it's the sort of effect you'd need a pedal for. Something that could be done at the P.A. head. Maybe just a simple reverb or something like that. I'm not sure why he switched mics, either. But it did result in a somewhat different sound. And sure, he's doing a lot with his embouchure, so I'm not saying it's all down to effects.

 

[Jaice Singer DuMars]

soft reed + big tip opening, lots of palm key D, Eb, F alternate fingerings, playing alternating from the extreme tip of the piece to further in for more direct sound, and the aforementioned effects. I do a lot of this kind of playing, although not nearly as well executed by a mile

 

[Jazz Is All]

Thanks Jason.

 

[jamiejazz]

I've played with him a few times. He's got a massive sound, and basically just uses a Meyer 5 or equivalent.
I think he's just playing really loose and letting the throat work by hearing what he wants. He's getting that sound on the normal notes as well as the false fingered ones.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I've played with him a few times. He's got a massive sound, and basically just uses a Meyer 5 or equivalent.
I think he's just playing really loose and letting the throat work by hearing what he wants. He's getting that sound on the normal notes as well as the false fingered ones.

Whoa man, how I envy you. He really does have a range of sound ideas clearly from growing up in Israel and being into all the Arabic and Eastern musical scales, instrument sounds and tonalities. I'd love to be able to see what he does with his throat to get that effect in the beginning. He must be swallowing half the mpc. I have listened to this number as well as Nature Boy and others from that period endless times because he has so much going there creatively that it blows me away. No way I could transcribe those but I hear what he is doing harmonically to some extent. I even get off on that he he quoted of A Love Supreme for half a second. LOL

 

[Atratr]

I think the advice given above is good. There are no effects in the beginning, sounds natural to me. Just use your ears and experiment. He sounds really gorgeous, and i think that apart from the spirit and energy he delivers, he is playing with a lot of taste, space and great ideas. Nice music. And i love that he mixed the whole thing with some screams and singing, makes the thing sound organic and powerful.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I think the advice given above is good. There are no effects in the beginning, sounds natural to me. Just use your ears and experiment. He sounds really gorgeous, and i think that apart from the spirit and energy he delivers, he is playing with a lot of taste, space and great ideas. Nice music. And i love that he mixed the whole thing with some screams and singing, makes the thing sound organic and powerful.

Yes. I truly love what he does here and Nature Boy just blows me away. I've listened to these many time since I first found out about him a few years ago when some people were arguing about his politics. I ignored that and just dug his music right away. The guy has blended all these influences and made something really uniquely solid out of them. Very inspiring to me just as a lot of so-called World Music is. So I'm glad to see that other people feel the same about his playing.

 

[LateNiteSax]

Holy cow... Gilad is really amazing.

 

[Jazz Is All]

Ain't he though?? Blows my mind every time.

Hey LateNiteSax, didn't you used to live in Nyack? I see you are in Costa Rica now and I actually have friends from Nyack who have been going there every winter on vacation for years and love the place. I've always wanted to go there but haven't been able to yet. This guy plays drums.

 

[Dr G]

I think the advice given above is good. There are no effects in the beginning, sounds natural to me.

He starts on a mic that has extra reverb on it, then switches to a different mic, as JL noted in Post #4.

If it sounds natural, you must practice in the shower. :bluewink:

 

[Jazz Is All]

He starts on a mic that has extra reverb on it, then switches to a different mic, as JL noted in Post #4.

If it sounds natural, you must practice in the shower. :bluewink:

When I get the new underwater scuba sax, I will.

 

[LateNiteSax]

I moved from Nyack NY to Costa Rica in April 2019. My first residence was a disaster. I got out of there and now I live in a sort of fairytale place. Who is this drummer friend of yours? This is where I live in Costa Rica. I know, its nuts. View attachment 252340

Ain't he though?? Blows my mind every time.

Hey LateNiteSax, didn't you used to live in Nyack? I see you are in Costa Rica now and I actually have friends from Nyack who have been going there every winter on vacation for years and love the place. I've always wanted to go there but haven't been able to yet. This guy plays drums.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I moved from Nyack NY to Costa Rica in April 2019. My first residence was a disaster. I got out of there and now I live in a sort of fairytale place. Who is this drummer friend of yours? This is where I live in Costa Rica. I know, its nuts. View attachment 252340

Wow!!!! That's incredible. What a view!! Not quite as beautiful as that of the Tappan Zee or Sing Sing from west side of the Hudson, but I guess it will do, right? Can you tell I'm really serious? not. My friends are Jane Grauman and Steve Bear. They used to live farther north on a sort of community right next to Bear Mt. but when their kids started growing they moved into Nyack. They love Costa Rica and have gone for years. Having spent some time in Puerto Rico and Cozumel years 30 years ago, I know how great it has to be.

But now P.R. is a disaster because of the hurricane, politically motivated neglect and the recent earthquakes, and Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula are all built up by tourism and not the same at all. I hope the Costa Rican government controls thing so it doesn't become another paradise ruined by First Worldification. I know what that's all about because I moved to Santa Fe N.M. in 1970 when it was still a quaint town of 35,000 and dead in the winter. If you needed things you drove to Albuquerque 65 miles south. Then the rich in L.A., movie stars like Amy Irving, Robert Redford, Oprah etc. discovered it along with the rich from N.Y.C. and built mansions, so we got Californicated and New Yucked all at once.

The Woolworths and dry cleaners on the Plaza and the gas station right nearby were turned into mini-malls selling rainbow coyotes, the rents and real estate prices shot up. Old adobes on Guadalupe St. in el Barrio that was the poorest part of town where I had lived originally suddenly became Condos and that was it. Native New Mexicans couldn't afford to live in their own town and though I was single I had no future there. When I finished my MA in Albuquerque in 90 I moved overseas because it was clear already that I couldn't afford to live there and the beauty it had was being eaten by the rich. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

This Eagles song expresses it all:

 

[whaler]

I've played with him a few times. He's got a massive sound, and basically just uses a Meyer 5 or equivalent.
I think he's just playing really loose and letting the throat work by hearing what he wants. He's getting that sound on the normal notes as well as the false fingered ones.

I was thinking small tip and soft reed. That’s how you get a lot of color in your sound. Big tip, soft reed doesn’t give you that flexibility to overblow, underblow or articulate like he does.
I have a live recording of Joe Henderson live where he gets sounds I didn’t know were possible. Same thing, small tip, soft reed.
Wake up people!