[mrpeebee]

Having seen the very nice thread of our friend Lionel about a long alto blues solo (>here<) I realized I also had a very long Bluesy recording played on tenor. I did upload it into my thread >PeeBee with backings<, but inspired by the thread of Lionel I decided to post it also in a separate (this!) thread.

I used the song 'Unit 7' from bassist Sam Jones to try out the AABA Blues form (A part is a 12 bar blues in C concert, B part is an 8 bar bridge), but the backing track I had was a bit long (almost 9 minutes). It's a hit and play (not much preparation) recording from March 2012 and my main tenor setup in that time was a Florida no USA 10* with La Voz medium reeds, but the fresh La Voz medium I just got was a bit hard for the 10*, so I used my Florida no USA 9 (which I just bought as part of my [big] vintage Otto Link collection and as backup for the 10*).

Anyhow, hard to fill the full 9 minutes with inspired playing, also with the bit resistant reed. But I think I had some nice runs at places.

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Song: Unit 7
Genre: Jazz Standards
Tenor sax: 1953 Selmer Super Balanced Action
Mouthpiece: 1950's Otto Link STM Florida no USA 9
Reed: La Voz medium

Enjoy!

 

[Lionelsax]

I liked it very much because instead of thinking too much about the thing, you did it, I really really appreciated.
Your sound is softer and it's good, is it a harder reed ?
I should try this backing track, it might be more difficult because it is faster than the one I used.
I will listen to it again.
If you want a battle, I will be very glad to do it.

Did you record it in 2012 ?

 

[mrpeebee]

I liked it very much because instead of thinking too much about the thing, you did it, I really really appreciated.
Your sound is softer and it's good, is it a harder reed ?
I should try this backing track, it might be more difficult because it is faster than the one I used.
I will listen to it again.
If you want a battle, I will be very glad to do it.

Did you record it in 2012 ?

Thanks Lionel.

Not thinking but just playing has actually been my approach for almost all recordings I ever did! :bluewink:

I remember that La Voz medium reed (which is around a 3 I guess) played very stuffy for me, hence I used the 9 tip instead of the 10*. It made me sound softer than normal, but also gave some texture to the sound because I had to push it more.

I think I got the backing from someone back in 2012 and must have a copy somewhere in my archive. Let me know if you want to have it.

Would have been very nice to do a battle with you, but I unfortunately lost my place to play/practice/record since March last year. I never play at home and only play once a week at the Big Band rehearsal (not now, being in a holiday break, and also no concerts and almost no rehearsals since Corona started here in NL mid March this year). :|

 

[DarrellMass]

Wow! That was really entertaining +! Probably my favorite recording of yours, that I've listened to. Your dynamics were great, and you really made my eyes pop out, with those screamers midway through! A great variety of licks, that show a lot of time put into playing. Impressive. I might have to try to steal a lick or two from you, to push my abilities a bit further along.
Thanks for sharing a piece that demonstrates such a diverse range of techniques. You are cool, Peter!

 

[mrpeebee]

Thanks Darrell, your remarks are much appreciated.

 

[mrpeebee]

Found another recording with a (too!) long Blues backing track from March 2014 in my collection, this time played on a Ponzol Super 120 I was testing out in that time. A very powerful mouthpiece that I got from a pro-friend, but that I didn't pick as my main mouthpiece in the end because of that loudness and brightness (being not easy to mix well with a Big Band sax section).

The difficult thing with such a long song is to make a good build-up of the solo from starting softly and relaxed to more powerful and energetic, but in such a long format it's not always easy to do and to keep the solo interesting. Using several 'tension' build-ups and special effects can work in that case (I got that 'trick' from Arnett Cobb, who I've seen doing that often during live concerts). Still it's always difficult to play those long formats, especially for hobby players like me (and many others here on the forum). Best way to find out is to try it!

Here is my try-out clip (also shared in another thread) playing 'Sandu', a nice blues tune written by the great trumpet player Clifford Brown:

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Song: Sandu
Genre: Jazz Blues
Tenor sax: 1953 Selmer Super Balanced Action
Mouthpiece: Modern metal Ponzol Super 120
Reed: La Voz medium