Building a Saxophone web site

Another One Bites The Dust: Karmann Gone Bust
Ragtop lovers, get out your rags and cry. German maker Karmann, famous for its Karmann Ghia and later for many ragtop versions produced for makers such as Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Porsche, Renault and VW, has declared insolvency, is reported. The company still has 3470 employees. Karmann’s last big job was the Audi A4 Cabrio. After that was insourced back to Ingolstadt, Karmann could not find another large account to keep them busy.

Lennie and Me - How I became a saxophone player?
This is an excerpt of the Interview: Lennie Niehaus (LN) by JazzWax (JW) JW: What was your first instrument? LN: The violin. My dad was my teacher. He was born in Russia and had attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory [pictured] with Jascha Heifetz. It was a strict place. If a kid played a wrong note, they would hi

Drummer Matti Oiling died suddenly
Published first on October 6, 2009 by YLE; the Finnish Broadcasting Company. A versatile drummer and band leader Kaj-Matti Oiling is dead. Mr. Oiling, born in 1942, died suddenly in Fuengirola, Spain. Matti became known during the decades of Oiling Boiling Rhytm'n Blues Band which he founded in 1969. He began playing professionally when twenty years old in Onni Gideon's band. Although Matti had a strong jazz background, pop music generally belonged to

Improvisation Basics 4: Psyching Out Improv Demons
I participated in mid-1990s in Jazz Studio class taught Roger Freundlich in Espoo, Finland. Roger later published an article in Down Beat Magazine (1998) about his teaching methods. Here is a summary of it: Look the demons of jazz improvisation straight in the eyes and say, "I'm going to improvise - deal with it!"

Jon R. Smith: White Trash, Michael Brecker, Philip Glass
"I used to occasionally hang out with Mike Brecker in NYC. We would both be sitting in with Paula Lockhart who had Howie Wyeth playing drums…Brecker told me that two of his favorite players were Jim Pepper and Jon Smith." John Firmin (aka Johnny Nocturne) “Jon’s sound is instantaneously recognized, something only a handful of players have, with a tone that’s as big as a house, and a big vibrato that’s characteristic of a gospel singers…If I were putting together a horn section, Jon would be my absolute first choice.”