Recently, the first saxophone I ever owned turned 30. I was 15 in March of 1979 when it arrived brand new from Manny’s, the NYC music store. I still play it, although in the last 30 years it has gone through long periods of silence. It is an alto, Selmer USA, model Signet, and it cost me $325.00. A schoolmate played that sax in the inauguration and closing ceremonies of the 8^th Pan American Games, held in Puerto Rico in July of 1979, while I played his tenor, a Selmer USA Bundy.

With my Signet alto I played at the School Concert Band from August, 1979 until my high school graduation in May, 1981. Then I played it at the Big and Concert bands of the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus. In those college years (’81 to ‘86) I played with salsa and rock bands and had a blast.

In June of 1991 I was already a lawyer when I purchased, also from Manny’s, another alto, a Yamaha 62 (for which I paid $1,875.00 back then). Years later, when I overhauled and played again the Signet alto, I noticed that it sounded better than the Yamaha. Last September I sold the Yamaha and got a Mauriat soprano, which I found much better sound wise than the Yamaha 675 I had and also recently sold. Now I’m planning on getting a Yanagisawa A-991, either the lacquered one or the silver plated. Any suggestions and insights are welcome!

- Roberto A. Fernández

I don’t usually blog, but since I was checking something, I thought why not share this amazing performance.

This is from my response to a question on the Saxophone People Forum-

im in the market for a tenor sax. what is a good brand? should i also get the metal mouthpiece to get that nice sound? ive played alto for years just curious as to what kind of tenor i should look for. thank you very much!

From reading something on sax on the web-

“Lenny Pickett does play a Selmer Mark VI. He also plays a 130/0 sms Berg Larsen” -SelmerC*

Depending on how long you’ve been playing and what you want to play, metal could be good.

It’s brighter and gives you more volume, bad for any sort of classical setting though. The string players will give you mean looks, haha

The horn- Mark VI, is widely considered the best horn, but they aren’t made any more and some are in good shape others aren’t. Because they’re rare, they will be expensive too.

So if you find a good one and can afford it, go for it.

Yamahas, Selmers, Keilwerth, Yanigisawa all make good horns too.

Yamaha is probably the most affordable out of those.

Try out some different brands and see what you like.

-Neal Battaglia

Learning Saxophone?

Saxophone Newsletter

If you are still able to listen the the news, you must have heard that Circuit City, will be closing all of its stores, and thus leaving 34000 employees jobless - this due to the very tough economic times.
The Seattle Weekly’s blog Reverb posted an article with the following

Julie Porter, a publicist at the Concord Music Group, home of artists such as Spyro Gyra, Gerald Albright, Najee, and Boney James, notes in an email to the Weekly that Circuit City “was definitely a key partner and at one time could be as high as 25% of market share for some of our smooth jazz records.” Though that number had been declining recently, she says.

Its a bit like ripples on the water, with the effects growing wider and wider and wider… these artists are going to need to be innovative as to there marketing techniques.

Via Jazz, The Music of Unemployment

(OMG - I have just noticed the more than weird connection between the name of the source of this story and its topic.)