Even if I SUCK!
It is because I am using this site as a kind of accountability tool. It helps me to keep practicing, especially when I post something where I really sound like an amateur (which may be all of them). So it is not to say to you the reader, Hey listen to how good I am. Believe me, I know what it sounds like. However, if you compliment me on what you hear, I will graciously accept it.
I do believe I am getting better. If I didn’t I would probably quit again, maybe. Truthfully, I have rediscovered how much I like playing music, especially jazz. Jazz is one of America’s truest art forms, and I’m proud to say historians give credit to African-Americans for the genre’s beginnings. And jazz is alive and well in not only in America but the entire world. Everywhere I have traveled to there were jazz musicians to be found somewhere. And especially among musicians who play jazz cultural walls do not seem to exist. I have met some really cool people in Russia, Italy, Chile, Rio, Argentina, Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and many others where jazz is played and enjoyed.
I have found that the better I could play jazz the more had to give to rock, R&B, funk or whatever. And to go a step further, the more actual saxophone studies and books, like Selected Studies for Saxophone, by H. Voxman, or Eugene Bozza’s Etudes~Caprices for Saxophone are a great help in facilitating the technical skills needed for any type of music.
For the most part, I hate these books and the reason is that they are so difficult. I don’t think I will ever master this stuff but working with them as much as possible will help me toward mastering the instrument, which I may also never do. I certainly want to though.
So I will continue to embarrass myself here with my recordings. I hear things that I don’t do so well and I practice them. I hear things that I do well and I try to build upon them. Eventually, I may be satisfied and venture out into the public eye. You can keep watching if you want to.
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