Recital videos, August 2023
I’m pleased to share videos from my recent Delta State University faculty recital.
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Trade in your old reeds for new Ricos
This is an interesting promotion from Rico Reeds. Send in 10 of your rejected non-Rico reeds and get 10 Ricos of your choice, either a box of 10 or, it seems, possibly two boxes of 5. I have claimed my mail-in coupon online and will be sending off some reeds shortly. I considered waiting until the deal was done before blogging it, but you have to obtain your coupon by April 6, so I figured it was worth giving the early heads-up.
I haven’t used any Rico products in a while, but I’ve got no shortage of rejects among my current favorite brands, so it seems worthwhile to get some freebies to try out.
Tenth anniversary
Today makes ten years since I started the blog. At the five-year mark I did a little retrospective, and I don’t think there’s much need to do it again. Basically the things I was excited about and proud of then are the things I’m excited about and proud of now. Other than publishing my book, which grew largely out of this blog, it has mostly been more of the same: another 250 or so posts, another few hundred musicals added to the doubling list, new and updated web tools and resources for musicians, and of course lots of comments, emails, donations, and other happy connections with woodwind players around the world. I hope you will continue to read, engage, and of course make music.
A few weeks ago I put out a request for questions from my readers. I got some good ones, and here are some answers:
Farewell: Frank Wess
Last week Frank Wess, one of the great woodwind doublers in jazz, passed away at age 91. He was best known for his years with the Count Basie band, and for being an influential figure in bringing the flute into its own as a jazz instrument.
If you’re not familiar with his playing, definitely check out “Midgets” from the Basie April in Paris album. Sometimes classically-trained flutists are quick to dismiss jazz-playing doublers, in some cases justifiably so, for failing to pay proper dues on the instrument. While Wess’s tone doesn’t fit current ideas about a “correct” classical sound, there is evidence here that he is in control of the instrument: certainly good command of finger technique (and remember, classically-trained folks, that Wess is improvising here), plus some double-tonguing, a technique common in classical flute technique but relatively rare among reed players.
Photo, Tom Marcello There is a nice tribute (with a YouTube video) at the NPR jazz blog.
Update: Woodwind Doubling in Musicals
I’m pleased to announce the release of a very much new-and-improved version of what used to be my “Woodwind doubling in Broadway musicals” page. Now it’s just “Woodwind Doubling in Musicals,” since I long ago abandoned any idea of limiting it to shows produced on Broadway.
Here is what’s new, besides the title:
- Each show now has its own page. I know some of you will object to this change. Sorry. This has been a long time coming; almost 1,100 shows is clearly way too many for one page. Splitting things up shouldn’t really slow you down if you are using the list as a reference and looking up shows using the navigation at the top of the page; it is, admittedly, less convenient for idle browsing. It is also kinder bandwidth-wise to those visiting from mobile devices, which is more and more of you.
- This is huge: there is now a commenting system. Many of you who have contributed over the years (since about 2005!) have included insightful commentary along with the specifics of instrumentation for each show, and I haven’t had a good way to incorporate that information. Please go to town sharing useful information on each show’s individual page.
- There are some new ways to browse, including by production location, year, etc. This information is far from complete, so please please help me fill in the blanks. In the earliest days of the list, I didn’t keep track of sources or of any background info on each show, so there are still a lot of listings that are pretty bare other than instrumentation.
- If you want to keep track of the very latest updates and are RSS-savvy, you can hook up to feeds. The most useful ones are probably the main site feed, which delivers the most recently modified listings, the whole-site comments feed, and the comments feeds for individual shows that you care about.
- You can now “register.” There aren’t a lot of really clear reasons to do so at this point, but it creates the possibility in the future that I could extend editing privileges to trusted contributors. And I’ll tell you what: if you register for an account and send a donation of any amount at all (except I think the PayPal minimum is a buck), then I’ll turn off advertisements for you when you’re signed in.
- Which reminds me, there are ads on the individual show pages. I know. But I have put many, many hours into this thing. Also, I would happily consider running your ads instead if you have something relevant to promote and want to purchase some space.
- I have brought back the Frequently Asked Questions, and created a new page with hints and guidelines for submitting information.
Please do check it out.
