Leo Parker Transcription – The Lion’s Roar
Dr. Evan Smith has provided a new transcription – another hard hitting solo from Leo Parker – on the tune “The Lion’s Roar”. He’s got a nice analysis along with the transcription posted on his site.
Category: General
Boss Baritones w/ Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile out tomorrow!
A new exciting album drops tomorrow, Friday June 7th. Two of my favorite baritonists will be releasing their album finally. I’ve seen the group play live a couple times and its tremendous. Gary Smulyan, and Frank Basile are both solidly in the Pepper Adams school of baritone playing, but each have their own take on it.
This group they have together is somewhat a throwback to the notable groups that had two tenor saxophones as the front men (Think Sonny Stitt & Gene Ammons, or Johnny Griffin & Lockjaw Davis etc)
I’ve pre-ordered my copy, if you’d like to grab yours the link is here.
2 New Transcriptions, and a huge milestone!
There are two recent transcriptions added to the repository – Bastian Contreras delivered Pepper Adams‘ Falling in Love with Love from a Red Garland album, and an alternate transcription of Cecil Payne‘s solo on ‘Bringing Up Father’ from the album, ‘Patterns in Jazz’ care of Guillaume Orti. Head over to the page to have a look!
We now have over 150 transcriptions, for free, in the repository. And possibly more impressive – there are now over 500,000 downloads!
But possibly most importantly – as of January 2024, this website has been online for 25 years! Head to the About page to read the history.
Hunter Pullen wins prize in Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition!
This marks the first time a baritone player as taken a prize. Congratulations to Hunter! All fans of the baritone should keep an eye out for this very talented up-and-coming player.
New Ronnie Cuber Transcription
Thank you to Matthew Stevenson for sending in a new Ronnie Cuber transcription. This one is on Arroz Con Pollo from his album ‘Cubism’.
Have a listen below and then head to the transcriptions page to download a copy!
Baritone comparison video from Brian Landrus
If you’ve checked out the Brands and Horns page here you know there are a lot of options our there to pick from when looking for a horn. Three of the most sought after vintage horns are the Conn 12M, Selmer Mark VI, and Selmer Balanced Action (SBA). Brian Landrus has put together a nice video comparing them – he also includes a Low A in the mix that really demonstrates how the Low A somewhat alters the sound of the whole horn.
New Review: ErgoBrass new ErgoSax support system (Bari/Bass)
The folks at ErgoBrass recently sent me their newest product to check out. Its a support system for baritone (and bass!) saxophone. It is made to replace or even work in tandem with your neck strap or harness. I was really impressed with this product. I reviewed a similar product some time ago called SaxSupport and this is somewhat of a similar idea, but I think better executed and more flexible.
Any baritonist with back or neck problems, or anyone with a bass saxophone could definitely benefit from this product. I have made an in depth video explaining how it works, demonstrating it, and trying it with various instruments (baritone sax, both low A and low Bb, bass sax, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and more). Check out the video for my full review:
Here’s the video from the company on the product:
If you’re interested you can purchase it directly from their website (sold and shipped from Europe):
https://store.ergobrass.com/product/ergosax-baribass-support/
LowBlowMusic plans a Ronnie Cuber Tribute concert!
Low Blow Music is continuing its presentation of concerts featuring and promoting the baritone saxophone. On Saturday December 1st they will present 6 hours of music dedicated to different musical milestones of the great Ronnie Cuber who passed away just over a year ago.
There will be four groups, one with music from Ronnie’s early playing on George Benson’s great albums, a latin jazz band dedicated to Ronnie’s long time association with afro-cuban music, a group featuring music that Ronnie Played in his long association with the Mingus Big Band, and finally a performance featuring music from Ronnie’s Three Baritone Saxophone Band.
The event will be live in Brooklyn at the Ornithology Jazz Club. The event will not be live-streamed but some footage will be captured and shared.
If you want to support Low Blow Music in its production of concerts, and get lots of great lesson content, free album downloads, exclusive historical photos and more – check out the membership options: https://www.lowblowmusic.com/membership
New Ronnie Cuber Transcription
Ronnie Cuber passed away a year ago. So its a nice little tribute to be able to add a new solo transcription of one of his classic solos over a blues. This one is Benny’s Back from George Benson’s Cookbook album. A great album featuring a young and fiery Ronnie Cuber. To my ear he’s really channeling a lot of Leo Parker here.
Head on over to the Transcriptions page to download and have a play through yourself.
New Article: Bass Clarinet for Baritonists
I was thrown into the bass clarinet world in college and was woefully unprepared. So I’ve gathered some information from my experience of the last 20 years and collated it into a new article to hopefully help young (or old!) baritonists dive into the world of the bass clarinet.
Please check out the article and let me know what you think!
-Andrew