[Dixielandjazz] The importance of musical equipment

[Stephen Barbone]

> Tom Wuggins wrote (polite snip)
>
> Careful there Steve, you are going to upset one our most valuable marketing
> resources, the Musical Equipment and supplies manufacturing Sponsors who
> constantly seek endorsements by any artist they think will promote their products to
> other artists.
>
> Where do you think I get all my shiny new equipment?  :))
>
> I just gave my sax players a case of Reeds I got from a company at the NAAM
> show.
>
> Sheesh, they went throught he whole case in thirty minutes trying to find the
> perfect one, :))

Bechet was my mentor on reeds. When he didn't have one handy, he more than once, took a wooden cigar box and his straight razor and fashioned his own. He always had some rubber bands around also in case a spring failed. Taught
me to always carry chewing gum in case a pad fell out too.

And Theonlyest Monk once followed Keith Jarrett on stage at a concert. Jarrett always a bug about mic placement and had several mics carefully placed carefully to get the piano sound just right. Monk's reply to the sound guy
when asked how he would like the mics was: "Gosh, over the piano I guess".

And Davern gets a beautiful sound on outdoor gigs with his 1925 Conn bakelite, or hard rubber clarinet, whatever. I did pick up on that and have just had a 1926 hard rubber clarinet completely refurbished for those high humidity
gigs that play havoc with wooden instrument tuning. Even polished the rubber to take away that green hue and darken it to black.

And Bird played that white plastic sax, given to him as a gift, for a while after he pawned his horn to alleviate a case of the shorts.

Great players. all.

But me? When in doubt after a wrong note or squeak, I always stare at the ax to help the audience conclude that it was the horns fault. ;-).

Othe than that, I am a firm believer that it is the embouchure, tongue, and column of air the player puts into the instrument that are by far the most important factors in determining sound. (Or the finger hit on a piano etc.)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone