What an incredibly useful video. Thanks Better Sax!

Eric's comment "music is bigger than us" really hit me. So true. The best we can do is be our best authentic selves.

I think this is the most wholesome, real and helpful video I've seen in my entire life. I can't be thankful enough about hearing these beautiful and truthful comments about how to avoid common traps in the learning process of improvisation. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to you Jay, Eric and the rest musicians for putting the time just for the sake of helping future generations. "Don't play for the cats, no one cares what they think"!!

Wow I love the depth, humility and directness with which Eric talks about improvisation. I hope I meet a jam group of people like he talks about.

Eric just laid it all out for everyone. He is such a great musician.

Eric Alexander is one the greatest sax player today. Ive been studing some transcriptions of his solos. What a workout. This guy really does it right.

Thank you for this post! This is the first time I see Eric Alexander play alto! And George Coleman!

Really appreciate the sincerity of this video. 6:15 - 6:55 is truth. I heard this exact comment from Sam Rivers. Can't question Sam's cred as an innovator, and he said he didn't start out learning how to play free. He said "I had to learn to play like everyone so I could play like no one."

Eric Alexander is basically the only recent sax player I listen to regularly

Thanks to you Jay, and to Messrs LeDonne, Alexander and Bollenback. This is one of the greatest videos on KZfaq on the subject of learning the craft of jazz improvisation. There's a lot to take in here.

Hey Jay, excellent post. This type of video needs to be made and shown more than lessons on how to play. Understanding the mindset of playing jazz so much more important. I loved Eric’s comments. So spot on. Thanks for posting this video.

lol...The edits with camera-shots switching back-and-fortt to Eric, while nursing that beer, is crackin' me up! Lots of great insight from some kick-azz musicians...Love it! Thanks for this, Jay :)

Eric Alexander plays in my teacher's sextet One for All with Joe Farnsworth. Each time I've spoken with him I'm always taken with how brightly his passion for music burns and it comes thru in his bluntness in emphasizing what one needs to do to improve and his willingness to share what he has learned from his mentors and musical elders. He references them often and honors them in his playing. The fact that he is one of the greatest living Tenor Saxophonists yet willing to tackle Alto speaks volumes about his desire to continue to grow and take on challenges. Thank you for allowing him to speak at length.

Thanks for your work and sharing some great excerpts!

That sounds great in all aspects of playing and even recording. Beautiful!

Great advice from Eric! Also the whole video is awesome :)

Thank you Jay for this video. That was what I call, The Real Reel. Eric spoke in a fashion that helps us struggling sax players to keep digging. Right or wrong, just keep going till you find it. Love it

I feel as a drummer that there is so much value in implementing these tips and thoughts into our playing. It does, for me at least, feel like we create a story and melody that supports the other musicians and that all ties together in this beautiful harmony. Loved this.

This is great! Thanks Jay

Truth spoken here. Thanks Jay!

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a clinic with Eric Alexander last year. He said something that really stuck with me. He said when listening to jazz to improve your vocabulary, that you should, “listen a lot to a little, not a little to a lot.” Meaning it’s better to only listen to five or so different tunes and know those tunes inside out, than it is to listen to 200 different tunes and not know a thing about the piece’s musical structure.

Excellent advice form brilliant players

Love all the comments from all in the video. Eric A is way too down to earth, but I think he knows what it's like to be a human being, striving to express oneself. And I sure do agree that "vibing" or outright insulting developing players is NOT constructive at jam sessions. If you're that much above everyone else, don't jam just go to your sold out gig at MSG. Many people may know about the circulating sound recording of a young John Coltrane (in the Navy?) who was playing alto sax and sounding kind of ok, but not stellar. He showed everybody some years later. Everyone is developing. No need to bring people down. Bravo to Eric and everyone else and to Better Sax. Thanks.

Love the philosophy of these guys. Wonderful advice.

Except Ledonne I heard all others they are great great musicians who tiredlesly playing jazz and revive and keeping it alive the sound of jazz for every one old and young. In short I started see them at Augies then smoke. Paul from DC use to live in Astoria queens. Thru them I was lucky to see jazz great pianist Harold Maburn. They keep the legacy and tradition kicking. Bravissimi

So happy I stumbled upon this video.

So glad it’s finally out thank you for these great publications! Real language to help us move our playing forward

I saw Eric together with Pat Martino and Harold Maybern back in the late 00s. That was an amazing concert, just an explosion of sound…

eric was at my school for a workshop in australia, JMI ! rediculous shreddery and a gentleman to boot !

Jay that was GREAT man. I am actually gonna check out Ben Wendel on Tuesday here in NYC at the Village Vanguard. I definitely have to head out to this CT venue, just a quick 1 hour drive for me. Thanks for this cool and informative interview.

I clicked on this thinking I wouldn’t really get into it or care…but wow! Great video; great interview and great ad for your mpc! Which I have and love…it slots well with my Custom Dark and my NY Bros 2….

“No one cares what the ‘Cats’ think” wonderful advice. Many jazz musicians are impossible to impress. I’m playing with some like that tonight. Play for yourself, and the people. Listen and respect the band

Great stuff for music or life.

I'd love to hear more stories and wisdom from Eric Alexander.He has and had some great musical fathers.He is now in a position to do for others what they did for him.

Cool interview. 😊👍

Eric seems real! No bullshitting.

Jazz is complicated enough, because it is now 100 years old, and has many sub-genres, and sub-styles. Literally, each decade brought in something new. It would be interesting to have someone, say like Mr Alexander, to maybe explain and demonstrate particular music vocabulary of each period? I don't think that anybody has done it yet, and would be a landmark in Better Sax education.

“You can not break the rules if you don't know the rules”🎉🎉🎉

I like how they all had different things to say. Dunn said he likes pushing himself live. Bollenback emphasized developing your ear and learning how to sense the band. Alexander said, which I really like, get your act together and accurately master the conventions, then expand on them.

As someone who is not very good, I can only guess it takes a lot of listening and copying, like learning a language, until you begin to create your own voice. Recording youself and listening back can be very useful too. I think your technique and relationship to your instrument is important, so you can play whatever you want ot hear, but it's only one element. The long haul is perhaps getting your ears and brain to take in what everyone else is doing and having a nice dialog.

Eric is lit here… and I love it. 😂😂😂

Jay....very good....sax man

In my experience which is 45 years as a pro. It takes talent #1. I know musicians who have worked extremely hard and practiced countless hours and they still suck after 40 years. Other players just get it. They have big ears and music flows out of them.

Screw competition! It is the hindrance of all creativity. Competition is totally left brained and antithetical to creativity

Oh damn so good! I'm working on my bebop sound pretty vigorously these days, really trying to crack that sound. It's so much simpler than I thought - just gotta do the work simple as that

This is so insightful! However i'm not a Sax player, i'm a Trumpet player who also loves to use the Flugelhorn for jazz. 😎🤟

9:35 "Get with instrument that sounds adequate, is so important" .. OMG!!!!!!! Right!

No alto in 30 years??? Jay Metcalfe you've created huge ripples!!

Great 👍

Eric!! WORD SPOKEN

Mike Dunn is giving me shades of Jimmy Smith’s organ grinders swing!

Eric: “Music is bigger than Us”. Anything else?

Great!!!!!¡

Killer wisdom. Be in the moment, and don't play for the cats. and do the work. Same stuff I tell my students. Learns the harmonic templates, but don't play licks. Great stuff.

Wow!!! That point Eric makes about how he and George Coleman would never have played alto again if not for your mouthpiece is quite something.

At first glance I thought the thumbnail was Bill Clinton lmao

I thought that was president Clinton on sax at first! 😂

Woah it's awesome that Mike looks like Major Monogram from Phineas and Ferb

I like my alto mpc, but you can’t get a better endorsement than these.

Enjoyed both the interviews and the musical samples, but I was also struck by the quality of the live recording. What was used to record that live performance?

Cool channel, got anything on Chris Potter?

I am playing a burnin' alto 7 mouthpiece, it suits me very well. Which opening for the tenor burnin' piece would you recommend? I'm currently playing a Navarro BBS 8 metal.

I Dig Eric's playing and his band. George Coleman is awesome. The mouthpiece sales pitch.... maybe a little too unbelievable.

Does anyone know what standard is being played at 3:13 ?

I love yours videos man, I watch you day! But i have a question. Can you do a review on the Mendini by Cecillio alto and tenor saxophones? Because I want to buy one but I am not sure if its a good instrument or not and I don’t want to take a risk.

You were in CT and didn't tell me!???😂

Can you test 3d printed reed please.

First 🏆 love the vids

Better Call Sax

Eric sounds great on alto - was that a YAS-23 though???

👏👏🙏🙏🙌

Form the video still, I thought the sax was going to be Bill Clinton

4

Bill Clinton has really gotten better playing his sax.

🎃🎶🎵🎷

1:52

All that reverb on the sax is really weird.

Is that a P. Mauriat 🤔🎶🎵🎷

i wanted to hear from the drummer but the saxaphone player was like "they dont count" now im offended

first

Thought that was Bill Clinton in the thumbnail

Thought it was Bill Clinton in the thumbnail

why is everyone in the video including the content creator old, where are 30-somethings in jazz?

There are no rules.

I just listened to a 10h French podcast radio show on Sonny Rollins (yes, 10x 1h, covering 1951-2001!!!). A torture, but I'm like that, I dive into an artist and I listen to everything, or almost. To have my own opinion. My opinion of Rollins is that he seems very overrated to me. As a player/improviser First of all as a player/improviser, he does not seem to me better than Johnny Griffin, Sonny Stitt, Roland Kirk, Phil Woods, Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Hank Mobley... but enjoys a much greater notoriety... and unjustified in my opinion. Ok he plays well, but not better in my opinion than the musicians above. Listen to Eternal Triangle which puts Rollins and Stitt together. Here they are VERY evenly matched technique wise but it is Rollins who is the more famous today. There is a lot of study done on Rollins' solos and they are generally accepted to be examples of strong overall thematic construction and development. This somewhat implies that others just play randomly. I'm not entirely convinced by that argument. If you like it, its a strength, if you think its an excuse for repetition, you'd think not. As a composer At the level of the composition, he did not compose anything, everyone knows that his hit ''St Thomas'' is a Caribbean folklore already recorded by Randy Weston in 1955 under the title ''Fire Down There''. St Thomas is an example of cultural transference. It is infact originally The Lincolnshire Poacher. An old english folk tune. It was taken to the Carribean presumably on the slave ships but possibly even earlier by the pirate ships (appropriate given its title). It gets transmuted into a Carribean Folk tune and then Rollins recalls it from his childhood being sung by his mother and renames it after the Island. I had assumed St Thomas was what his mother called it, but your info would mean that might not be true. Interestingly the Ted Heath Band, a British Big Band of the 1950s had a big(ish) hit with 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' done presumably as a 'ripost' to St Thomas. His ''Tenor Madness'' is a composition by Kenny Clarke published in 1947 under the title ''Rue Chaptal''. His other compositions from the 50s... well, Oleo, Airegin etc... it can in no way be compared to the compositions of Trane, Bird, Monk or Shorter... One thing that always struck me that I've heard no one else mention is that the Alfie theme is merely a reworking of the intro to 'Singing In The Rain!' Sound and artistic vision I find this a curious aspect. Early on, in the 50s his sound was distinct enough but it became more distinctive later. It is an odd sound for tenor but its one I hear more and more players now using. I'm not quite sure how its done or if there is a physiological reason for it. I have found it to be an aquired taste. Moreover, his playing and his sound are terribly degraded after 1966 (36 years). Something happened on that bridge, he lost his mind. He seems to have been traumatized by the arrival of Ornette, Trane, Ayler... In the 60s he tried to be freer than Ayler, more calypso/blues than Ornette, and more mystical than Trane, but without succeeding because so superficial... Then in the 70s/80s he tried his hand at funk, disco... with really ridiculous and corny results... Did he want to be funkier than James Brown himself? More disco than Chic and Nile Rodgers? On ''SAIS'' from the ''Horn Culture'' album, one example among many, just picking up a random piece between 1966 and 2001....It's a shame. He plays out of tune, out of rhythm, with an absolutely disgusting sound. It is a lack of respect towards himself, the other musicians and the listener. No normally constituted musician would have agreed to let this recording be released. The problem with Rollins is that EVERYTHING IS LIKE THIS after 1966. He even said himself that he was high on marijuana when he recorded his solo album ''Soloscope'' at the Museum of Modern Art. from NYC...Also listen to the result, it's ridiculous and disrespectful towards the listeners... Ego and money Also, on the radio show, they say he was paid today's $300,000 for himself to record the Nucleus album (listen to the result!!!!), and that for his concerts, his Financial claims were unrealistic, only big festivals could afford it. He played with the Stones but didn't want to tour with them because, according to Mike Jagger himself, he wanted too much money! I am not making anything up here. In a blindfold test published in downbeat in 2006, he doesn't recognize ANY saxophonist, even taking James Carter for Don Byas! Totally mind-blowing and revealing! Conclusion In conclusion Sonny Rollins is for me the archetype of a narcissistic complacency encouraged by the fans and the milieu which has placed him on a throne since 1956 and his (very average) album ''saxophone colossus''. You have to be quite arrogant to glorify yourself as a ''saxophone colossus'' at 26 years old when BIRD had just died the previous year.

this is such a nice interview. and it is true, just gotta pull the ass time procedure and run it through the keys. and even after doing that it will still sound bad! hahahaha. there just isn't enough time to play all the material with the standards you're currently playing! but it is a matter of keep doing it? like Ella said: it's better to practice one song for 24 hours than 24 songs for one hour. thank you very much! i loved the interview!

that was dynamite. what a cool cat.