ABOUT ME

After a break of about 25 years I have decided to make a return to the saxophone! I have had some good experiences and thought other sax players might enjoy reading about those times and maybe pick up a few tips a long the way.

I graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1987 with an Associate Diploma of Music (Jazz). It was a great experience and I got to meet, talk and take some lessons with some real greats of the saxophone. The first player I met that really blew me away was Red Holloway, I think the year was 1986 or 1987. A really nice man and very willing to share his knowledge. I will never forget him playing Georgia on alto sax in the con recording studio...great sound, unbelievable technique and very fast tongue!

I think it was about 1986 when I met the lesser known but great Canadian saxophone player Fraser McPherson. WOW! I had never heard of him before he played at the Sweet Patootie Jazz club in Brisbane. Wonderful swing tenor player...who smoked like a chimney and coughed continuously until the horn went in his mouth. A real gentleman and very generous with his time, we had a great chat about his influences. Try to pick up his "live at the planetarium" recording if you can...I can still visualise him playing an up tempo version of I'm getting sentimental over you.

It was around this same time that I met and spent a little bit of time with the late Al Cohn. He was also playing at the Sweet Patootie and was on fire. A lot of uptempo songs from memory. I asked if he had only one thing to practice what would it be and Al said "long tones". Al seemed to be a quiet sort of guy and a bit hard to drag information out of but I have a great photo with him and a couple of signed records. He did love a glass of scotch!

I then had the good fortune to meet and hang out with my favourite tenor saxophone player of all time - Johnny Griffin. It was either 1987 or 1988 and Johnny was headlining for a few nights at a restaurant (since closed) in Brisbane called New Orleans. I really hit it off with Johnny and it is a memory I will have forever. He really opened up when I mentioned that Red Holloway had been through town not long before his arrival. As it turned out Red and johnny were school friends so he was pleased to hear he was playing well. I think he felt comfortable when I mentioned I spent some time with Red at the con.

Johnny was a hell of a player and a really wonderful man. He spent most of the night when he wasn't on the stand sitting with me at my table and just talking. He was keen to get his hands on my Selmer cigar cutter tenor BUT only to hang on his wall! From memory he was playing a Selmer super action 80 and I have never heard anything like it. Another interesting memory from that night was that he wouldn't come on to the stage until the room was quiet. Oh, the only disappointing thing that night was he didn't really have a good rhythm section to work with...I vividly remember hearing Johnny telling the drummer to use the bass pedal on every beat and clapping when he thought the time was dragging. Looking back on those nights there are a whole lot of questions I wish I had asked but I think I was just glad to be in his company. I have some signed records from Johnny I will post.

I recall seeing Richie Cole at the Brisbane Travelodge and at the time being a little disappointed!! Richie didn't seem that interested and seemed to be merely dialling it in. That was until a local player the late Tony Hobbs showed up with his horn under his arm and just clambered on to the stage uninvited. Tony was a strange cat sometimes (he was my teacher second year at the con) but a fantastic alto player. A Paris conservatory graduate from memory, lived with Sal Nistico and played with a host of great sax men including Sonny Stitt-so you get the picture he could really play. This was obviously all the encouragement Richie needed to bring his A game to the night. WOW..he brought out the fast bebop that I was expecting and came out of the battle well on top. I might have a signed record somewhere but he was hard to get near.

Other players and clinicians I got to see and on occasion play with were Vince Genova, Ian Wallace, Thom Mason, Joe Lababera, Victor Morosco, George Golla...there were a lot and no offence meant to anyone if I have forgotten some of those players.

I have always hoped to return to the tenor saxophone and have started in the past twelve + months spending a lot of time on ear training. Recently I have purchased a NY Otto link Tenor mouthpiece and am spending quite a bit of time mastering the shooshie and Allard exercises. I will buy a horn as soon as I have enough cash.

This website is a commercial enterprise and I make no apologies. I hope you will buy some of the products in the shop or take out some advertising space so I can get a new tenor. I do offer some free stuff for beginners and am constantly updating the shop and my products.