Tom Scott Sightings at NAMM

Here's a picture of Tom Scott playing the new SG Baritone Sax at winter NAMM last week, when we were having our little ice storm here in central Texas.

Steve Goodson told me that Tom's warm-up was like listening to a seminar in how to play the baritone saxophone. Everyone at the booth was slack-jawed. An incredible new horn in the hands of a master player . . . it doesn't get better than this!

Tom Scott has been leaving me slack-jawed since I was just a lad (and so was he, as he's only a couple years older than I am.) I first heard him with Don Ellis' big band (and it was enormous). I don't think he needed to shave then, but he sure had an unlimited supply of ideas, which he's been adding to ever since.

I have a little podcast-format blog dedicated to something I really dig that was done about 10 years after the Don Ellis days. Patrick Williams' recording called Threshold is just not available at any price. Tom plays all the woodwind parts, including some incredible solos on piccolo, tenor saxophone, and saxello. Go to this link to hear these cuts.

Why every doubler needs an alto flute

OK. I know what you're thinking. I fought this battle too. I can still hear my wife echoing in my head, in reply to the merest suggestion that an alto flute might be a excellent purchase. There was always some kid expense, house expense, or simply expense standing in the way, and then there was the deal-breaker. "When," she'd ask, "was the last time someone called you for a gig on alto flute?"

Point taken, sails (and sales) deflated. My wife's mastery of the calculus of money is not to be trifled with. She is, in fact, a professor of accounting at one of the great business schools in America. She knows her stuff. But you can overdo this way of examining life's little issues. There's a certain madness in adding instruments to a collection like mine, but they all have to pay their own way with gigs, and each one of them was added at some level by impulse.

And so it came to be that I cast my net. I looked at three altos, and I'll tell you in the fullness of time, which one I decided on and why, and what justification arose for its purchase.

I love Tony Campise's alto flute, almost as much as I love Tony. It plays effortlessly because of the design by the legendary Speedy Tanaka and sold as a DiMedici by Jupiter. It has three nice octaves, but, with a silver head joint, alas it was a little beyond the budget at over $3000. (The one I played without a sterling headjoint felt a little stuffy.) At $40 a casual or $100 a recording track, that's a long time in paying it off. Besides, I already have a perfectly good C flute and a piccolo and each of them handles those stratospheric ranges. Actually Tony's alto flute may be exceptional because he's an endorser, and endorsers tend to get the pick of the litter.

Nevertheless, the DiMedici had excellent ergonomics, and that makes a big difference when you're slinging one of these heavy (Hah! Am I really saying that? Me with the bass saxophone?) pipes around. It's very hard to balance the instrument in a playing position if there's no comfortable finger position to begin with. For example, my friend Ginger has a very nice Armstrong that she's owned since the early eighties. It's another swell instrument, but the thing is so uncomfortable that Imy hands and shoulders start cramping up when eight bars has passed.

I spent the last year or two trying out sub-$3500 altos: Emersons, the house model from the Woodwind/Brasswind, Gemeinhardt, Armstrongs . . .

Now I'll tell you what I bought.

I got a Pearl from Nations of Music, an online dealer that also handles Steve Goodson Model and Saxgourmet saxophones. And the one I got has a Sterling silver lip plate and not much else. The high range is pretty good and it doesn't fade to a whimper until A3. The ergonomics are very nice, with a comfortable hand position. As I said, no Sterling excelpt the lip plate, everything else is silver plate.

One characteristic of Pearl flutes is pinless construction. I think most of us just accept that there will be these pins in our flutes assaulting us and our clothing at all times. This alto flute even has French pointed arms, a very nice touch.

Details abound with this instrument. The French style case and fleece-lined case cover are very attractive and protective.

So how much for this superb piece of work? The Pearl 201s is just $1,450 out the door, half my budget.

Now let's get to the musical justification for owning this instrument. Say you're on a casual. You're doing an hour of cocktail music before the rest of the band saddles up. The folks want to do some talking among themselves, so you've been instructed to maintain "conversational levels," whatever that means nowadays. But the bass player plays too loud, up creep the drummer and piano player, and before you know it everybody's yelling to be understood.

Here's what you do: pull out the alto flute and play a couple ballads. You will lead the rest of the band into coversational levels once again. And if you happen to have the Pink Panther theme in your book, so much the better.

Nations has a complete selection of Pearl alto flutes.

Go to this link to see.

Three Tenor Players Lost

A little off topic, but . . .

My friend Larry Schlect died last week. I've known him since he was 16 and played in my dad's big band in Santa Ana in the early sixties. When we were put togeether in the reed section of Big Band 2000, we rediscovered each other and became pretty good friends. He had lived in Las Vegas for 20 years or so. He played with lots of folks, notably Tom Jones and Sy Zentner, and accomplished most of the goals he'd set for himself musically. He combined keep professionalism with the ability to shake off every slight, because, after all, the music is what matters. This was a point he taught me by example. There are always side deals going on around a group of musicians, pissing contests, simple career squabbles, professional discourtesy. Larry's response was hey, I've been through worse than this, and I can state that none of this matters. It was a simple yet profound lesson in life as a musician.

He never complained about anything, even though he was working at the state hospital at the time to get certified as an aide (which he did) so he could qualify for a government pension (which he also did). He had cancer, and no one knew it until his death.

Michael Brecker died Saturday from a blood disease which gave him leukemia. With his brother, he started tearing up my world with Dreams and Horance Silver's album "In Pursuit of the 27th Man". He worked harder in the practice room than anyone, ever, and his reward was effortlessness on the bandstand or the recording studio. Brecker was everything that every tenor player wants to be: famous, booked three years in advance, and capable of any flurry of notes over any chord change.

Michael Brecker taught me that you simply have to put in the time. If you want to play something on a gig, you have to have played it in the practice room. I'm still learning that lesson.

Finally, Harvey R. Cohen died yesterday in Woodland Hills, California. When I moved to southern California in 1979, Harvey's was the first rehearsal band I played in. He had me even though I showed up iften covered in blue ink, hastilly cleaning up from my job as a printer. Harvey didn't play in his own band, but rather conducted his pieces. We all knew what was going on here, Harvey was auditioning for Hollywood, and we were fine with that. Long-term frinedships arose from that band. When I recorded my little big band (http://www.originalrecipebigband.com under the tab Listen), Harvey dusted off his tenor, adding significantly to the proceedings. In late 1979 if memory serves, Harvey was rushed to the hospital with chest pains. He was 28 years old, and had bypass surgery. Over 30 years later he succumbed to heart disease. Harvey taught me that personalities feed a band and the conflicts between those personalities are what makes a great band. He taught by example that reconciling conflicts under the greater goal of the music is doable and worth the effort. He taught me this by putting me in with someone I'd fallen out with when I played with Stan Kenton's band.

Rest in Peace, gentlemen. You will be missed.

Slightly off topic: The Gaylord Texan

So here I am in a big fancy room in a big fancy hotel next to DFW Airport. I played NY Eve here the other night and Jan and I bought another night from Travelocity for $150. The thing that I have to say about this hotel is that it's a grounded cruise ship. There's a big atrium in the center, you're geographically apart from the town and thus subject to the, shall we say, aggressive pricing of the management. (Three bucks for a coffee in the morning? In a paper cup?) You're stuck here, if you don't like it, tough. Get walking. There are MANDATORY fees collected for parking ($8) and a facilities fee that covers, among the usual spa and shuttle bus fees, 2 20 ounce bottles of Dasani water in the room's refrigerator, which in our case did not work.

I worked for a trade show contracter for a few years, and this is the same attitude that made everyone love exhibiting conventions as much as we all do. Everything is extra, and provided by attentive and alert staff.

Meanwhile I ask myself if we are not leaning into the wind, and get ready to drive home to Austin.