I’ve only been to New Orleans once, but it was a cool trip.  Lots of music all around the city.  I stayed in the French Quarter, which wasn’t hit as bad by Katrina.

Recently I was contacted about a documentary being made about the music in New Orleans:

Neal,

My name is Patrick Stafford….. I am producing a jazz documentary and I am hoping you will want to help us succeed.

Tradition is a Temple uses New Orleans musical culture to explore the passing of tradition from one generation to the next.

http://traditionisatemple.com/

is the website for all this if you would like to check it out.

Every finger has a purpose in playing the saxophone, though your right thumb doesn’t move much beyond staying below the thumb rest.

The fingers are listed with abbreviations here.

‘Hand’ refers to the area between your first finger and your thumb, it’s used for the palm keys and the side keys as shown in the diagram.

I was doing something wrong….

It wasn’t hard to fix it.

Wasn’t my reed, mouthpiece, ligature, saxophone, embouchure, finger position, air support……

It was how I was standing.

My feet were set apart wider than my shoulders, they weren’t parallel and my body was shifted a bit to the side.   My right foot was a bit behind and my head was slightly leaning to the left.  Not sure if that’s how I played consistently, but I was playing that way today and when it was suggested that I move slightly and change how I stood, the results were instant.

The way I stood before and was leaning, wasn’t let the air supply get through as efficiently it seems.

The correction was to stand with my feet parallel and at shoulder length and also having my shoulders squared off in the direction I’m playing.

The saxophone should be slightly to the side and your strap/harness should allow it to just come up and let you play with little effort.

Try looking at yourself in the mirror!

If there is an issue with how you’re standing and you fix it, you ought to sound better immediately.

I’ve been in the salsa world for about five years now.

The music has something to it that makes the world want to dance.

Salsa literally means ‘sauce’ in Spanish. The roots are in Africa and the Caribbean and the music developed in New York where it fused with jazz and other styles. Puerto Rico and Cuba have strong salsa scenes.

Mambo, Cha Cha, Boleros, Merengue, Bachata, and other music and dances are all related to salsa.

Understanding the clave and rhythmic base of the music is very important.

If you try and approach it like you approach jazz, you probably will sound ‘off’.

Don’t try and force Bird’s licks or something Trane played into it, it might work in some cases, but it’s going to need to be adapted to fit the music if you play those licks.

A lot of times, playing something simpler is better if it feels good.

The music is for the dancers, and they’ll let you know if it didn’t go right.

If you’re looking for saxophone salsa books, check out Salsa Latin Jazz.

Let me know if you have questions about it!