If you are curious to learn more about the curator of this site (me! Andrew Hadro..). There’s a new podcast episode where I speak in depth about the baritone sax, altissimo, the NYC ‘jazz’ scene and much more. Check it out below.
Thank you to Tom Sabin for sending in a new transcription on a Jason Marshall Solo!
This one is on “Never Stop Loving You” from Jason’s recent release, New Beginnings.
Checkout the song below, and head over to the Transcriptions page to grab a copy!
While this album is very straight ahead, Gary has still managed to avoid over saturating the recording world with more common standards. A lot of the songs here are very unfamiliar, continuing his trend of bringing to light lesser known compositions. His last few albums featured a lot of obscure contra-facts over more common chord changes.
The playing and recording quality are very well done here, if you’re a fan of Gary’s playing (who isn’t?) you should have a listen.
I’m sure you all have heard about the passing of the great Ronnie Cuber. Ronnie once told me in a lesson that he couldn’t listen to Leo Parker anymore because he would copy it so much! Incidentally the great baritonists, Jason Marshall and Frank Basile will be playing two nights this weekend to celebrate Ronnie Cuber at Cafe Bohemia in NYC – Friday and Saturday I believe. Both Jason and Frank are huge fans of Leo Parker and Frank has done quite a bit of work documenting all Leo Parker recordings.
In other Leo news, Leo P (not to be confused with the aforementioned Leo Parker) has won the 87th annual DownBeat Magazine Readers’ poll. I’m sure this will grind some people’s gears as Leo P doesn’t play strictly jazz and attracts a young following as much from his outfits, hair , and dancing as he does for his playing. I personally find his music a bit monotonous, but I am thrilled that a lot of young people find interest in acoustic music and instruments through him. Leo P is a fine baritonist and actually should get credit for incorporating some extended techniques into his playing in a very approachable way. Also we can hope that anyone that gets interested in the baritone through him will also branch out to other realms of the baritone and further inspiration found therein. So congratulations to Leo P, anyone hearing him for the first time should also definitely check out his main inspiration, the late great, Ronnie Cuber.
Greatly sorry to report Ronnie Cuber has passed away.
Ronnie Cuber. 1941-2022
Undoubtedly among the greatest baritonists of all time.
Head to LowBlowMusic.com for membership to catch the live stream!
This is the biggest news I’ve been able to write about I think since launching this site 15 years ago.
Some time last year Gary Smulyan called me to propose a crazy idea to promote the baritone saxophone. Though we have planned and scrapped those plans a few times we are finally at the point where we can announce a new organization devoted to the baritone saxophone. Low Blow Music was formed by Gary Smulyan in conjunction with the council of baritonists – Frank Basile, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro (myself), Brian Landrus and Jason Marshall – with the purpose of promoting the baritone saxophone.
But perhaps the even more exciting news is that we have launched LowBlowMusic.com – this is a site that offers exclusive baritone content for a very affordable yearly membership of $25. Membership will get you all of the following:
-Access to the live stream of the October 8th event!
-Council of baritonists videos – conversation and mini lessons from Gary Smulyan, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro, Jason Marshall, and Brian Landrus!
-Rare photos from Gary Smulyan’s career and travels
-Free download of the album “Marcescence” from Andrew Hadro
-Custom altissimo fingering chart from Andrew Hadro
-Rare photos from Claire Daly’s career and travels!
-Free download of the album “Mirage” from Brian Landrus
-Access to unreleased live Frank Basile performance in France
And more to come soon.
You can also support this organization by joining as a Gold Member or becoming a Sponsor of one of the live sets!
I hope to see you at the Ornithology Jazz Club in person, and look forward to sharing all of the forthcoming baritone goodness with you.
Andrew Hadro
The album sounds great, and Brian has assembled an incredible list of musicians to play on it. It has a lot of room for improvisation but is clearly showcasing Brian’s composition skills and also leaning into more of a modern rock/electric sound that is refreshing to hear.
Have a listen below, and head over to Brian’s website to pick up a copy.
The baritone saxophone is not nearly as prevalent as the alto or tenor, so it is inherently somewhat niche. Josh Sinton is a long time practitioner of the baritone and is exploring the edges of what the already somewhat undiscovered baritone saxophone can do. He has two new recordings out and they are worth listening to.
I encourage you to expand your palate for baritone and go to Josh’s band camp page and have a listen. You make like it, love it, or just be interested to know what’s possible.
Dana and drummer Jerome Deupree made up 2/3 of the band Morphine and took part in a podcast interview recently. Its worth listening to.
