Selmer – What Are They Thinking?!?!

Posted on By ericdano 8 Comments on Selmer – What Are They Thinking?!?!

I’m not sure what to think about this. Selmer, I gotta ask, why?

Conn-Selmer, Inc. announces the U.S. availability of the limited edition 2006 issue Selmer (Paris) saxophone avian series. In 2005, the Henri Selmer company of Paris embarked on a five-year adventure honoring each of the continents by depicting a native bird in highly detailed hand crafted engraving on its new Reference Series saxophones. Last year’s edition featured the hummingbird of the North American continent. For 2006, Selmer (Paris) has selected the kookaburra bird from the Australian continent. Selmer Paris “bird” models are based on the popular Reference 54 Series saxophones, capturing the essence of the famous Mark VI instruments made in the 1950s and 1960s. Selmer Paris will produce 330 of the standard edition kookaburra alto saxophones for the United States and Canada. The standard kookaburra will feature deluxe hand engraving on the bell, along with a unique case.

Oh, and they have a Flamingo one as well. Personally, I’m holding out for the Lisa Simpson limited edition Selmer Reference series sax for 2008. And the Peter Griffin limited edition Selmer Reference sax for 2009. Oh, and the Bevis and Butthead series in 2010. Why not just offer to engrave a reference series with whatever image you want for an extra $500 or so?

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Frank Morgan Dies

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I’m a little late on this, probably due to not having internet during this time, but Frank Morgan passed away on December 14th.

Frank Morgan, 73, a jazz saxophonist of impeccable ability, whose claim to the mantle of the celebrated Charlie Parker was clouded by his heroin addiction, died Dec. 14 at his home in Minneapolis. He had colon cancer and kidney failure.

I have a few Frank Morgan albums, and he plays his ass off.

News

Wii Nodame Cantabile Game

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Nodame Cantabile is a Japanese Manga, a TV show, and Anime about a pianist and violinist of a famous pianist who wants to become a conductor. It is a very entertaining Anime. The TV Show, I didn’t care for. The Manga is good. If you went to music school, you’d like it. Brings back memories. Nodame is the name of this unfocused genius piano girl who is a total slob, but has a crush on Shinichi Chiaki (the pianist/violinist who wants to be a conductor).
Anyhow, there is a Wii game coming out that has some interesting things, and potential applications. It’s a little goofy in the beginning, but in the middle you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Wii controller used as a baton. The other instruments, probably not all that great for. But to use a Wii as a baton, now that is pretty darned cool. Can you imagine using this to practice conducting? Maybe some sort of music game where you have to conduct and if you don’t keep time or mess up, the audience starts heckling you. Or maybe the orchestra starts coming apart. Could be pretty cool thing for music people. Probably WAY beyond the scope of this game, but it is very interesting to see stuff like this coming out.

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Guitar Wizard

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I’m sure all of you have seen or played Guitar Hero. Or perhaps the bigger, and some say better, Rock Band. Here is something even better. Guitar Wizard. I believe it is a new, way better version of this. Done right, it would be very cool. Could be a new way to learn an instrument. Naturally, the company could apply this to any and all instruments, including saxophone. Check out a video of it with the HOT Veronica Belmont.

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Recorder Jazz!

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I’ve been doing some research for an upcoming article on the Akai EWI, and I’ve been researching Masato Honda. This is the guy, I believe, who played the famous Cowboy Bebop Tank! Alto Saxophone solo. He is also a master of the EWI, frequently playing it with the group T-Square. Anyhow, I came across this video of him playing four recorders with T-Square. Amazing stuff.

I think the most ingenious thing was the “stand” he had them on, and using a vocal microphone to amplify them. Oh, and running them through an effects processor towards the end.

UPDATE: 1/6/08: BTW, if anyone knows exactly what Masato Honda’s EWI setup is/was, that would be great to know. It looks like a 3020, but most of the youtube clips I’ve seen he has his EWI colored, so…..

Videos

Gear Shows Coming Up….

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There are a lot of music related shows coming up. CES (next week), NAMM (towards the end of the month), and MacWorld (Jan. 15th I believe). Lots of cool music related items to be showed there. Here is a peek of a few.

Belkin’s RockStar. Connect 5 headphones to one iPod. $20

Sennheiser wireless headphones. These new ones use something other than bluetooth or wifi, and supposedly sound better and have a better battery life as well.

More things soon.

News

The John Coltrane Reference

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There is a new Coltrane book out by Lewis Porter, Chris DeVito, David Wild, Yasuhiro Fujioka, and Wolf Schmaler.

Few jazz musicians have had the lasting influence or attracted as much scholarly study as John Coltrane. Yet, despite dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and his own recorded legacy, the “facts” about Coltrane’s life and work have never been definitely established. Well-known Coltrane biographer and jazz educator Lewis Porter has assembled an international team of scholars to write The John Coltrane Reference, an indispensable guide to the life and music of John Coltrane.

The John Coltrane Reference features a a day-by-day chronology, which extends from 1926-1967, detailing Coltrane’s early years and every live performance given by Coltrane as either a sideman or leader, and a discography offering full session information from the first year of recordings, 1946, to the last, 1967. The appendices list every film and television appearance, as well as every recorded interview. Richly illustrated with over 250 album covers and photos from the collection of Yasuhiro Fujioka, The John Coltrane Reference will find a place in every major library supporting a jazz studies program, as well as John Coltrane enthusiasts.

At a whopping $150 for 608 pages, is this a must own for Coltrane nuts?

News

And We’re Back….

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No no, it was not some sort of FBI raid, or something that took us down. It was signing up for AT&T’s new Uverse service under the impression that you could keep your existing DSL line (on another number other than what Uverse was going to be installed on). Well, that was NOT the case as the DSL went down on December 11th. After a few calls on the 11th, and 12th, on the 13th someone from AT&T informed me that you cannot have Uverse and DSL coming to the same residence even though they are on different phone lines. So, I cancelled the Uverse service (not all that great anyhow), and the next 2 1/2 weeks began my struggle with AT&T to get them to activate the DSL again. They promised the following Tuesday, 18th, which they missed and said that Friday the 21st it should be up. Nada. Then on Monday the 24th, someone finally saw that there was some sort of Uverse hold on it, and cleared it, and Thursday the 27th was the date to get it up. No. The tech who came out on the 27th finally went to bat for me, and today, the 31st, the internet is back. Whew. What a pain. AT&T is getting a nasty letter from me, and the PUC is getting one about this as well.

Two good things came out of this whole mess. One good thing though was that I discovered Google Applications. There is a way to host your email there. That is huge, and it filters out a ton of spam. Previously, email was being served by this server, and I got all the strange spam and stuff. The other good thing was that I really, really relied on my iPhone during this. Even on the Edge network, I was able to connect to my daily sites, email, etc. In fact, I seem to miss the whole browsing with your fingers thing now……though it’s nice to have it hook up via WiFi now.

News

SSL Pro Convert

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Announced at AES, SSL Pro Convert sounds like a very cool piece of software. Say you have a project you recorded in Digital Performer, and want to put in ProTools M-Powered. You can’t. Nope. Yeah, it sucks. It is stupid. But you simply can’t export a OMF file out of Digital Performer and open it in Protools M-Powered. So, all that stuff I won a while ago, I can’t use ProTools on projects I have in Digital Performer. In fact, most of my stuff is in Digital Performer as that is what is in my teaching studio, since you need to have M-Audio or Digidesign hardware to run Protools (in addition to a iLok USB key).

Anyhow, SSL Pro Convert seems to be a piece of software that sounds like it would overcome this problem. Not sure how much they are going to want for something like this, but it might be worth it to some people. Though, that new M-Audio interface, coupled with Protools looks real tempting.

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Boots Randolph’s Rock And Roll Saxophone

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Boots Randolph’s Rock and Roll Saxophone – Techniques and Fundamentals for Today’s Players by Boots Randolph and Mike Shannon is 63 pages that try to show you how to play rock and roll like Boots. Not that Boots playing could in any way be condensed down to so few pages.

The first part of the boot, about 20 pages, deals with scales. Major, minor, blues, dorian, mixolydian, in thirds, fourths and arpeggios. Nothing new. Then the book moves into long tones, and has a little discussion about how tone/ear training is important. It is worth reading.

Page 30 on out gets into the stuff you wanted to know, how to play Rock and Roll saxophone like Boots. The book goes over Growls, Slap tonguing, Throat trills, pops, and vibrato in addition to a bunch of other things. There are some excellent examples of what these sound like on the CD. Then there is an excellent discussion about altissimo, and how to do it, when to use it, how to practice it, and

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Reviews

Xmas Guide 2007

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Last year, I didn’t do a Christmas guide. This year, I am going to. What holiday gift would you get your favorite saxophonist(s) this year. Here are some ideas.
Under $100

  • Reeds. Pretty obvious. Should be fairly easy to figure out what they use as well. There will be dead ones in the trash, and ones that are not working strewn all over the place. Cost: $20-$40.
  • Neckstrap. Can never have too many of these. Buggers get misplaced quite a bit. Cost: $10-$40+
  • Books. Walt Weiskopf’s books are always good gifts. As well as Greg Fishman’s books. And Jim Snidero’s books or any book with a recommended tag.
  • Mouthpiece. Probably not the best idea for someone who has been playing for a while. For a new saxophone player, it would be a good thing to get. Good brands to look into would be Meyer, Otto Link, and Berg Larsen. For Alto saxophone, a Meyer 5M is a good gift. For Tenor, an Otto Link 5* is good. (Though unless you get some of these off Ebay, some of these will be over $100. Though Meyer alto mouthpieces go for at $70)
  • CDs. There are so many good artists out there, and people’s taste range widely. I’d suggest getting an iTunes gift card, or a gift certificate to a store and let them pick what they want. Unless you know them well or you can steal a peek at their collection, or load up their iTunes while they are away and see what gets played alot.
  • iLife 08 for Garageband if you don’t already have it. (for Macintosh people) and/or JamPacks.

Up to $300

  • iPod Nano, or an iPod Touch. Don’t bother with some other brands. Believe the hype. The iPod Touch is amazing, and next year, expect games and all kinds of interesting applications. There is a great little game (on your hacked iPhone/iPod touch) called Tap-Tap-Revolution. Music game. Think Dance-Dance revolution, but tapping. I’d expect to see lots of neat applications for it next year.
  • Band in a Box 2007 Pro. Great tool for practicing, ear training, etc. etc.
  • Apple Logic Express. Like Garageband, but way better. ($199)
  • A recorder. The Zoom H2 and H4 recorders get good marks. I’d personally opt for the H4, but that is me.

The Sky Is The Limit

  • Logic Studio is a great deal for serious Musicians. You get 5 JamPacks plus Logic 8 and Soundtrack Pro plus all kinds of other goodies. ($499)
  • Reason. Reason works on both Macs and PCs and is a blast to use. ($399)
  • M-Audio Fast Track Ultra. Great preamps, DSP chip. For a street price of about $350. It’s on my list.
  • Sibelius 5.1. To write out and arrange music. ($499)
  • New horn, or another horn. If your saxophonist plays Alto, get them a Tenor. If they already have a Tenor, get them a soprano. Expensive, yes. Will you feel the love? Yes, you will. This will cost you several hundred, if not thousands, of dollars. Quality brands to look into getting are Yamaha, Yanigasawa, and Selmer for pro and semi-pro players.

Any other gift ideas?

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Band In A Box 2008 Released

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It is out, the latest version of Band in a Box. I took some guesses at what might be new in this version, and sadly, it looks like only two were put in. And that one was kind of a jest suggestion on my part.
From PG Music.Com

RealTracks. With the previous release of Band-in-a-Box, we added RealDrums. Now we’ve added three additional “Real” instruments, including Real Pedal Steel, Real Acoustic Guitar, and Tenor Sax soloing (RealSax). These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to the style, and would replace either the bass, guitar, piano, or strings part, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature.

Band in a Box starts the process of leaving its roots, and becoming more like a really bad GarageBand. In GarageBand, you can graphically create songs, preview the loops you are going to use, and then put them together, graphically. Band in A Box (BinaB) is becoming the MS-DOS version of GarageBand. You type in the text you want, then it will generate the loops for you, rather than doing it graphically.

I’m sure it all sounds good, real people playing beats midi usually.

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