Klarinet Archive - Posting 000231.txt from 2005/07

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Plastic Lester
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:12:04 -0400

There is a wonderful anecdote told by Phil Woods (I've read it, probably in
Saxophone Journal, and I believe he retells it on the recent DVD release:
Phil Woods: A Life in Jazz - highly recommended!). I am paraphrasing from
memory:

It seems Phil was playing in a... well.. gentleman's club (ahem) and having
one of those Harlem Nocturne kind of days all woodwind players have. Reeds
weren't working, mouthpiece wasn't working, horn wasn't working, everything
wasn't working. During the break, Phil headed across the street to a jam
session and found none other than Charlie Parker playing on a really beat
up old baritone saxophone. Phil said to Parker "Mr. Parker, would you like
to use my alto sax?". So Phil runs across the street, grabs his Alto Sax,
runs back and hands it to Parker. Parker then proceeds to play the $%#$ out
of the instrument, mouthpiece, and reed Phil had just about given up on
only a few minutes ago.

I think the spirit of the quote goes something like "That's when I realized
the horn, mouthpiece, and reed didn't mean #$%$".

-Adam

At 11:42 AM 7/22/2005, Patricia A. Smith wrote:
>I never got the knack of working on alto sax reeds, and heaven knows I
>tried. Somehow, I never could get them to keep enough springiness to get
>a REAL alto sax sound; I usually took too much off the upper sides (never
>going into the heart, most know to avoid that)...seems like most
>commercial brands seem to use lower quality cane for alto sax reeds, or am
>I just imagining that? I'm considering trying the Legere or other brand
>of "fake"reeds if I'm ever able to get another alto sax. It would be well
>worth the money to not have to buy sax reeds.
>(FYI other alto doublers - I used an H. Couf medium facing mpc)

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