During this period of relative inactivity, I’ve taken the opportunity to migrate my ‘cmelodysax.co.uk’ website to a new primary domain name – ‘ csax.net ‘ Time to reflect that the C Saxophone is capable of being part of the modern world, and not just the “C Melody” sax of the 20’s. There’s also a slight ‘play on words’ as I live on the Dorset / Jurassic coast, ‘C Sax’ sounds like ‘Sea Sax’ – well, I like it !
The old cmelodysax.co.uk address will still point to the new csax.net website, so any existing links you have to my website should still work, and there will also be times when cmelodysax.co.uk will still show in the browser address bar – due to the fact that some of the existing databases like the blog are tied to the old name – but once I nail all the links down it should be showing as csax.net most of the time, especially out on the website pages. I may, in time, migrate the blog to a newer – less cluttered – theme, which will then let me fully change that to csax.net as well, unless I discover a nifty way to techno-fudge it in the meantime.
With all this comes two new (easy to remember) email addresses, a main one of al@csax.net – and, when I’m away from the PC, I have a phone and a wi-fi PDA which both handle emails, so if it’s urgent try copying the email to mobile@csax.net as well. Naturally, all of the old email addresses will still work for the forseeable future, just like the old links… J
And, having a Spring-clean in Autumn, two old linked url/domain’s ( ‘cmelody.co.uk’, and ‘c-melody.co.uk’ ) will not be renewed next year, so in the very unlikely event that anyone uses those, please change over to ‘csax.net’. If anyone ever uses Windows Live Messenger etc., I’ve forsaken my old ‘dorsetdriftwood’ and ‘cmelodysax’ identities for csax@live.co.uk as well – yet more stuff to reconfigure (keeping those grey cells busy, sigh…)
The new name will also herald the move to a wider range of topics here, as – to be honest – there are many more interesting things in life than just saxophones, lovely as they are… Always open to put up topics on behalf of any readers, just email me with details on the links above.
Alan
So, what better way of kick-starting the blog on this sunny first day of September ?
I guess this playing position may be fine for some smooth-talking, slick-haired 20’s lounge-lizard sax player, but can I possibly see myself being comfortable with that for an evenings playing ? Nah… Goodness knows what sort of strain his right elbow is being subjected to, let alone his forward jutting neck…
Thanks to Dan ’soybean’ Sawyer for sending me the picture, and for his comment “You can see the apparent akwardness of balancing the horn while standing. The strap ring on most C-mels must have been placed for sitting position.”
‘Course, there might just be another reason. The relatively low output of the C-Mel, mostly down to the old mouthpieces that came as standard, might need the sax bell pointing either at the pianist (so she could hear him) or at granny sitting in the corner… Our sound these days mostly seems to go out and up – the sax bell is ideally angled for a microphone just above the bell – whereas this position is competing with the old trumpet, trombone and clarinet players stance’s, where the sound was out and (mostly) horizontal, straight towards the audience for purely acoustic playing.
It’’d be adding insult to injury to have the already muted C-Mel sound bouncing around the ceiling (as often does a lot of ours…) Maybe that’s also why a lot of older sax players automatically leant forwards when they played a solo, to point the bell more towards the audience ?
I’m reprinting the contents of an email here, sent to me by Lewis Pelham, and it really does sum up our (often) futile search for a better mouthpiece – when all along we don’t know what potential is lurking in some of the mouthpieces we already have…
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Alan – as you know, we have an old friend aged 79 who has been a pro sax player all his life. Johnny Marshall has never had any other job, and is a world class player. A pupil of the Army’s Duke of York Public school from the age of 8 he played clarinet and sax from day one – pictured right. "Dukies" led straight into the Army where he played tenor in the Army’s No. 1 band. Subsequently he went on to play with the Basil Kirchin Band through almost any band you care to mention, including six years with Georgie Fame. He backed Sarah Vaughan on her UK tour and the young Stevie Wonder when he toured the UK at thirteen years old.
I mentioned all that only to substantiate his pedigree – his playing is simply astounding in any style you care to mention. He has always been frightened to try different mouthpieces, not wishing to enter the "search for the Holy Grail". Yesterday we invited him to visit us for the day and he was interested in my arsenal of mouthpieces. I favour my Lawton 8*B over a vintage 8* Colletto. Probably because of it’s high baffle and tiny chamber, the Colletto is loud, bright and piercing. Difficult to control it is reluctant to subtone below D – whereas, for me, the Lawton is far creamier and will do just about anything.
To illustrate this to the sceptical Johnny Marshall, I played my Buescher Big B tenor with both the Lawton and Colletto in turn. JM agreed that I did indeed sound much better on the Lawton. Johnny then picked up the tenor (don’t forget he’s now an alto player and has literally not touched a tenor for decades) and repeated the exercise.
The result was utterly astonishing – with the Colletto he could do anything – ultra mellow with glorious subtone, to a screaming filthy sound. He had utter and instantaneous control of not only a strange horn, but an even stranger mouthpiece. He simply adored the Colletto, and said that if he ever played tenor again he would break my arm to own it. He liked the Lawton but claimed that it had nothing like the versatility of the Colletto. I learned a salient lesson – it is a mistake to make sweeping statements about the perceived and advertised qualities of various mouthpieces – it’s all down to the player.
This morning, I again tried the Colletto – it is still piercing and harsh… Kind Regards, Lewis.
P.S. -
With regard to his playing of the Colletto, he could easily understand why it was too bright in my hands (mouth!) – but he said that a good mouthpiece will allow you to play the sound in your head. Sound advice I think, and in the case of the Colletto it would allow a vast canvas of your head sounds.
He said that it (the Colletto) was the best mouthpiece that he had ever played. He also said that one’s personal preference was too often dictated by the piece that played most easily the sound in your head, but this invariably means that it will not allow you to stray too far from this preconception. I am now persevering with the Colletto ! If he can exploit it’s inherent versatility then, given time, so can I – in any case I would be foolish to disregard what I heard him doing with it…..
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There has always been a link here, in the Blogroll, to a favourite track recorded by Johnny Marshall as part of the North Devon Jazz Quartet – playing My Funny Valentine
Thanks to Lewis for sending me this a while back, and for his suggestion to share it with you all.
This is Dean Hilson, from Oz, making it look oh so simple 
– he’s using a 10* Link, so please don’t try this on a Selmer C*…
I’ll leave the rest to Dean, remember, this is glissando’ing into the altissimo stratosphere !
I’ll just go and shoot my saxophones 
Beautiful – Thanks Dean !
Well, 75% of it, but it’s coming along nicely ! If ever I needed more proof that the front page of the blog is too "cluttered", with far too much info on one page, the fact that no-one seems to have noticed the curious link in the Blogroll titled provisional Orpheo review is probably proof enough…
So there it’s been for a while, and, now it’s probably at 75% complete, I’ll invite comments and criticism. Just remember that it has a few more changes planned, and the odd bits in grey (gray) are in need of expansion…
Because of the need for loads of pictures (more to come…) it’s better formatted as a separate – full width – web page, but comments gratefully (and graciously) accepted here. Enjoy – click here to read the review.
Click on any of the pictures to see them in greater detail !
Just a reminder that I’ve started posting more stuff to the C forum – more than just about C’s… There’ll be much more in the near future. And, if you’re registered, as well as commenting, please feel free to start your own posts ! If you’d like a new section set up, just ask… If you have any problems/questions, also ask…
And, in case you hadn’t already worked it out, by default you’ll arrive at the Board index – a little further down the page there are these three very useful links, so you don’t have to scan all the forums for the latest dates -
View unanswered posts • View new posts • View active topics
( if not logged in, you get two links - View unanswered posts • View active topics )
To make life easier for myself, and provide lots more content, I may well end up quickly posting the more ‘discussable’ topics on the C forum , and leave this front page for more meaty issues… So, don’t forget about the C forum - it’s just a click away ! I’m also currently looking to see if there’s any way that I can allow “guest” (i.e. not logged in) comments, without letting all the spammers in…
UPDATE – OK – ‘guest posting – comments only – is now allowed, you just need to enter a name and the displayed anti-spam code – no login required. Also handy for quick comments by registered users if you don’t mind not having your avatar and/or signature. Subject to lack of spam, this may well be allowed for the foreseeable future.
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