Alto saxophone

Lines of melodious music filled my ears as I listened to Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy shortly after my eleventh birthday. I imagined myself playing notes on a piano creating euphonious sounds. In that moment, I decided to ask my mother for piano lessons at our local music store. I do not regret that decision, but I long to redo what I did that Saturday after my first lesson. Elated by my mother’s approval, I signed up with a teacher named Floyd. That Saturday afternoon my mother and I sat…

20th century. These are some of his popular songs, “in a sentimental mood,” “sophisticated Lady,” “I got it bad and that ain’t good” and “I’m beginning to see the light.” His band included Sonny Greer on drums, his child friend Otto Hardwick on alto Saxophone, Elmer Snowden on Banjo and Author Whetsol on…

life as possible, and that’s why I joined choir. “Keep Calm and Sing On” reminds me that no matter where life takes me, I can drown my troubles or worries with singing. Choir soon lead me to band, where I decided that I would play the alto saxophone. I loved the saxophone so much, that I stuck with it all the way to high school. Believe me when I say that the thought of marching band used to scare the living daylights out of me. Despite my fears, I came to love marching band, and that’s how I’m…

Growing up, my life revolved around music. My mother, a waitress and my father a bassist. I pretty much grew up in restaurants and bars, listening to my dad play songs Keith Richards wrote 30 years ago. Living in a house with more vinyls than square feet, I learned to love every genre of music. My parents went to every live concert they could go to; Aerosmith, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, you name it my parents were in the crowd. When I was ten my mom told me about this great guitar…

Miles Davis recorded this song in his album Milestones, and includes great artists such as Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Miles Davis is one of the most influential trumpeters in all of jazz history and took multiple musical directions during his five-decade music…

combination of Kim Cass' propulsive swinging bass and Kate Gentile’s vibrant drumming becomes best friends with Mitchell’s dazzling textures on “Mini Alternate”, a mutant piece featuring the charming yet cavernous sounds of Scott Robinson’s bass saxophone and the bandleader’s meticulous explorations. Ches Smith on glockenspiel and Dan Weiss on tabla enrich the scenario with quality vibes when the band gets suspended in a hectic groove before landing definitively on an enchanting percussive soil.…

When I was first presented this task I questioned my ability to describe, and fully understand music. I have had a love for music since I was born, and have been playing it consistently since the age of five. I played alto/soprano saxophone in band for over eight years, and was drum major my senior year of high school. Not once in any of my experiences of living through music have I ever questioned my understanding of it, until that is, I was asked to describe and analyze pieces in the form of a…

realized that I wasn’t wearing a neck-strap. As I picked my 2,000 dollar alto saxophone, I saw that it had a dent in the bell part of it. “Ooooooooh. Mom’s gonna kill you Jerome.” My little brother John said in his high-pitched voice. He was a bigger kid, even for his age, seven years old, weighing eighty-something pounds. “Go bug someone your own size,…

Marcello Pellitteri, a sensitive drummer and experienced educator at Berklee, convenes an Italian quartet composed of Orazio Maugeri on alto saxophone, Salvatore Bonafede on piano, and Gabrio Bevilacqua on acoustic bass, to homage his daughter Veronica, who passed away in 2014, at the age of 23. Each member contributes with original compositions to Aquarius Woman an emotional record that also includes a couple of covers and poems. A few guests join the quartet along the way, and the first doing…

on what Charlie "Bird" Parker brought to jazz through his alto saxophone. Although this paper is focused on Phil Woods, you can't mention Phil Woods without a word about his idol Charlie Parker. What did Charlie Parker do to become his idol? It was Charlie Parker's new Bebop style that intrigued the young Phil Woods into playing bebop throughout his early musical career. He later on actually met Charlie Parker and let him play his saxophone afterward told him to play after Charlie Parker's own…