JazzBariSax.com

Brett Stuckel forwarded me this short fiction piece he wrote. Its wild and very amusing. All fans of the baritone should have a read.
Read the full piece here.

Check out a snippet:

The history of jazz isn’t complete without the story of Lou Palmer. Yeah, yeah, you say, never heard of him. That’s expected. Lou never stepped on stage. Well, maybe, arguably, once—we’ll get to that. He didn’t write, he didn’t run a club, he didn’t sell drugs, he didn’t help guys get clean. Lou was just an average Chicago law clerk who could smell a baritone sax from miles away.

At first, Lou’s talent was a curiosity, a party trick. He could tell you how good a show would be hours before the curtain. If some no-name kid from Muncie showed up in town with a splattery honk, destined for greatness, Lou knew as soon as the kid stepped off the Greyhound.  He fed his finds to the highest bidding band leader.

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.

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!

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.

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/

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

As a baritone saxophonist in NYC I find there is more and more bass clarinet written for the baritone chair. Its a beautiful instrument and something that most baritone saxophonists should consider playing in addition.

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!

Bass Clarinet for Baritonists

-Andrew