Brilliant insights , Sam. I have been making a very similar change. Emphysema has made playing the Alto more difficult. I have always played Soprano but now it has become more of a primary instrument. I also enjoyed what you wrote on vulnerability. I had just written something myself on that very thing, as something I learned from Chet Baker. I’d love to talk with you sometime. Thanks for your inspiration.
Great to hear from you, again. And sorry to hear about your emphysema. I can only home difficult that must make playing the saxophone. Would love to hear your playing on the soprano and to read what your recently wrote. And looking forward to speaking with you.
I love all of the observations and topics you cover. I have mainly thought of myself as a tenor player most of my life. I’ve had to play alto at times but generally with long stretches where I don’t play it at all.
I’ve been gigging and shedding a lot lately. At the same time I’ve also needed to play more alto because of the groups I’m playing with. Recently it struck me how much I love playing alto. I listen to far more tenor players than alto, and in a strange way I think my expressiveness on alto is colored in a unique way because of it. I can really get around on it and bend and shape notes in cool ways, but the feeling (in my bones) is not the same as with tenor where I feel the key in my hands and head before I play a note. Playing the alto is feeling fresher to me, and I think it’s helping my tenor playing, and vice versa, by pulling me out of my habits and making me feel and hear differently. Realistically, my musical career as it stands wouldn’t allow for me to stop gigging on tenor. However, I’m going to integrate more alto into my world where I might not have thought to before, in my original stuff and where feasible.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. And yes, I know it's very easy for saxophonists to fall into the multi-instrumentalist trap—which isn't necessarily a bad place to be trapped. But it can be frustrating if you're really hearing a particular sound or instrument and your gig schedule doesn't allow for long stretches of time to devote to serious study and focus on a single instrument.
What I did was extreme, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. But if the sound is important enough to us, we can usually find a way to get there.
The things I’ve seen/heard of your music shows that you’re truly a virtuoso of the soprano sax. You do things with it unlike anyone else. I think you found your soulmate.
From Larry Kart's liner notes to Bill Kirchner and Marc Copland, "Old Friends" (Jazzheads Records--also on YouTube):
At one point Bill Kirchner played a good many of the reed and woodwind instruments with much skill -- sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, and piccolo. But in recent years the soprano saxophone has become his instrument of choice and eventually also of near necessity, and it is on soprano that one will hear him solo on this duo concert that Bill and one of his favorite musical partners, pianist Marc Copland, gave on September 23, 2008, in New York City at The New School, where Bill taught for 30 years.
The setting was a compact, wood-paneled, lecture hall-recital room (l was there), with fine acoustics (or it seemed to me) and a lovely piano for Copland to play. Full of friends, many of them musicians, the audience was attentive to say the least, and there was a great deal for us to pay attention to.
I said above that Bill’s focus on the soprano was a matter both of affinity and “near necessity” because of circumstances that he describes in the liner notes to his 1997 album “Some Enchanted Evening” (A-Records): “In 1993, it was discovered that I had a life-threatening spinal tumor. I underwent two operations to remove it, but as a result was left largely paralyzed on my right side. I learned to walk again, and have gradually regained most of the use of my right hand.... Happily, I have begun playing the soprano saxophone in public, thanks in part to the ingenious Perry Ritter, who rebuilt my horn so that I can use alternative fingerings.”
That no allowances need be made for Bill’s latter-day soprano playing is obvious from this concert; these are among the most striking recorded improvisations on this tricky instrument, which in the modern era is too often played so as to be thin and piping in tone. There is, by contrast to this unfortunate norm, a top, middle, and bottom to Bill’s sound, and he can vary its breadth and volume for expressive purposes in virtually any register. Is his sheer facility, his ability to place a great many notes in tight places, quite the same as it once was? Probably not, though he always was a lyrical player, not a flashy one. In any case, as I believe I said to him a few years ago, kidding on the square, “Now you get to play only the good notes.” Further, there are the words of his former teacher Lee Konitz when they were playing together not long ago: “You can always simplify." “One of the profoundest things any improvising musician has ever said, to my knowledge,” Bill adds.
Fascinating, Sam. I wonder if Dave Liebman had the same epiphany when he switched to soprano sax and recorded things like his brilliant 'Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' album.
“Musicians who were less concerned with preserving a vocabulary and more interested in discovering one…” That statement alone is more profound and relevant than ever.
Brilliant insights , Sam. I have been making a very similar change. Emphysema has made playing the Alto more difficult. I have always played Soprano but now it has become more of a primary instrument. I also enjoyed what you wrote on vulnerability. I had just written something myself on that very thing, as something I learned from Chet Baker. I’d love to talk with you sometime. Thanks for your inspiration.
Great to hear from you, again. And sorry to hear about your emphysema. I can only home difficult that must make playing the saxophone. Would love to hear your playing on the soprano and to read what your recently wrote. And looking forward to speaking with you.
I love all of the observations and topics you cover. I have mainly thought of myself as a tenor player most of my life. I’ve had to play alto at times but generally with long stretches where I don’t play it at all.
I’ve been gigging and shedding a lot lately. At the same time I’ve also needed to play more alto because of the groups I’m playing with. Recently it struck me how much I love playing alto. I listen to far more tenor players than alto, and in a strange way I think my expressiveness on alto is colored in a unique way because of it. I can really get around on it and bend and shape notes in cool ways, but the feeling (in my bones) is not the same as with tenor where I feel the key in my hands and head before I play a note. Playing the alto is feeling fresher to me, and I think it’s helping my tenor playing, and vice versa, by pulling me out of my habits and making me feel and hear differently. Realistically, my musical career as it stands wouldn’t allow for me to stop gigging on tenor. However, I’m going to integrate more alto into my world where I might not have thought to before, in my original stuff and where feasible.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. And yes, I know it's very easy for saxophonists to fall into the multi-instrumentalist trap—which isn't necessarily a bad place to be trapped. But it can be frustrating if you're really hearing a particular sound or instrument and your gig schedule doesn't allow for long stretches of time to devote to serious study and focus on a single instrument.
What I did was extreme, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. But if the sound is important enough to us, we can usually find a way to get there.
Certainly a topic worth exploring further.
The things I’ve seen/heard of your music shows that you’re truly a virtuoso of the soprano sax. You do things with it unlike anyone else. I think you found your soulmate.
Thanks, Russ. I appreciate that. It's been quite the musical journey. Hopefully, more to come.
From Larry Kart's liner notes to Bill Kirchner and Marc Copland, "Old Friends" (Jazzheads Records--also on YouTube):
At one point Bill Kirchner played a good many of the reed and woodwind instruments with much skill -- sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, and piccolo. But in recent years the soprano saxophone has become his instrument of choice and eventually also of near necessity, and it is on soprano that one will hear him solo on this duo concert that Bill and one of his favorite musical partners, pianist Marc Copland, gave on September 23, 2008, in New York City at The New School, where Bill taught for 30 years.
The setting was a compact, wood-paneled, lecture hall-recital room (l was there), with fine acoustics (or it seemed to me) and a lovely piano for Copland to play. Full of friends, many of them musicians, the audience was attentive to say the least, and there was a great deal for us to pay attention to.
I said above that Bill’s focus on the soprano was a matter both of affinity and “near necessity” because of circumstances that he describes in the liner notes to his 1997 album “Some Enchanted Evening” (A-Records): “In 1993, it was discovered that I had a life-threatening spinal tumor. I underwent two operations to remove it, but as a result was left largely paralyzed on my right side. I learned to walk again, and have gradually regained most of the use of my right hand.... Happily, I have begun playing the soprano saxophone in public, thanks in part to the ingenious Perry Ritter, who rebuilt my horn so that I can use alternative fingerings.”
That no allowances need be made for Bill’s latter-day soprano playing is obvious from this concert; these are among the most striking recorded improvisations on this tricky instrument, which in the modern era is too often played so as to be thin and piping in tone. There is, by contrast to this unfortunate norm, a top, middle, and bottom to Bill’s sound, and he can vary its breadth and volume for expressive purposes in virtually any register. Is his sheer facility, his ability to place a great many notes in tight places, quite the same as it once was? Probably not, though he always was a lyrical player, not a flashy one. In any case, as I believe I said to him a few years ago, kidding on the square, “Now you get to play only the good notes.” Further, there are the words of his former teacher Lee Konitz when they were playing together not long ago: “You can always simplify." “One of the profoundest things any improvising musician has ever said, to my knowledge,” Bill adds.
Hi Bill, thanks for sharing this. It sounds like Larry really captured the essence of what you do. It's always nice when this happens.
Thanks, Sam. You and I apparently are kindred spirits, if for different reasons.
BTW, in 2011 I did an interview with Dave Liebman for the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Project. Among many topics, we discussed his transition to soprano. The interview is long, but well worth your time. Here it is: http://davidliebman.com/home/interviews/liebman-oral-history-with-bill-kirchner-for-smithsonian-institute-as-part-of-nea-masters-of-jazz-project-2011/
Thanks, Bill. I definitely check this out.
Fascinating, Sam. I wonder if Dave Liebman had the same epiphany when he switched to soprano sax and recorded things like his brilliant 'Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' album.
We’ve only discussed it briefly. But I imagine his realization wasn’t radically different. And as you know, that’s a great recording.
“Musicians who were less concerned with preserving a vocabulary and more interested in discovering one…” That statement alone is more profound and relevant than ever.
Thanks, Daniel. One of favorites as well.
Thanks, Sam… This one comes at a good time…
Thanks, Rob. I'm glad it helps. And even though I wrote, it helps me too.
Excellent articulation, Mr. Newsome!
Appreciate that!
Comfort is harder to escape than failure is. Failure at least gives you information. “Fine” just continues.