Category: General

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

Fulton Street Collective presents a performance with THE LOW END Baritone Saxophone Big Band on Wednesday, August 16th at 8pm

Venue
Fulton Street Collective
1821 West Hubbard Street, #suite 307
Chicago, IL 60622 United States

The Low End
Baritone Saxophone Big Band:

Jacob Slocum, Mark Hiebert, Juli Wood, Alex Blomarz, Len’i Glenn-McKinney, Ted Hogarth, Joey Rosin, Roy McGrath, Andy Schlinder, Jimmy Farace, Joe Trahan, Kyle Madsen, Solomon Flores, Rajiv Halim, Tim McNamara, Steve Schnall

Julius Tucker – Piano
Joshua Ramos – Bass
Kieth Brooks – Drums

7:30 Doors
8pm Show
In-Person Only
$15 Suggest Donation

More details
https://fultonstreetcollective.com/event/the-low-end-baritone-saxophone-big-band-at-fulton-street-collective/

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!

Thanks to Aidan Sears we have our first new transcription addition in a while! Aidan sent in a chorus of blues from Leo Parker on the riff blues, “Leo Leaps In”, a short but incredibly joyous solo from a great album, “Back to Back Baritones”. Head over to the transcription repository to get a copy.

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.