William Hollifield

My Effects Rig

William — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:47:05 +0000

While my effects rig is still a work in progress, I’ve gotten some comments, e-mails, and phone calls asking what effects I use or recommend. I’ve got a couple of images here that shows what I’m using and the way I put signal through each of these pedals. I’ll soon be posting some videos displaying what each of these pedals do, some tricks and settings I like to use, and some things to look out for. But, for now, take a look at what I’m currently working with (full list below pictures):

Current Effects

AMT Wi5 Microphone
Digitech HarmonyMan
ElectroHarmonix Q Tron+ Envelope Filter
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring Modulator
Digitech TimeBender

Previous Effects

Digitech Vocal 300
Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

Brian Blade Fellowship – Live @ Newport Audio

William — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:08:52 +0000

This is another installment of the live recordings NPR made at the Newport Jazz Festival 2009. Not only is the Brian Blade Fellowship an amazing band with an incredible sound, it also features two phenomenal saxophonists Melvin Butler (Tenor) and Myron Walden (Alto Sax & Bass Clarinet). The other members include Jon Cowherd on Piano and Chris Thomas on Bass. Their set at Newport includes songs from the 2008 release “Season of Changes” (“Alpha and Omega” and “Season of Changes”) along with two other unreleased compositions and a great version of “Let Your Light Shine” which is soothing, soulful, groovy, and enriching. There are very few breaks in the music, so I’ve done the best I could with marking the time for each track.

Set List (as best I can tell):

Hymn (I Love the Lord) 3:06 – 9:00

Migration 9:00 – 26:07

Alpha And Omega 26:44 – 35:11

Season of Changes 35:28 – 52:47

Let Your Light Shine : 53:07 – 1:02:23

Band:

Brian Blade – Drums

Myron Walden – Alto Saxophone & Bass Clarinet

Melvin Butler – Tenor Saxophone

Jon Cowherd – Piano & Keyboards

Chris Thomas – Acoustic Bass

Lesson with Jerry Bergonzi

William — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:03:11 +0000

Hi guys! I found a great series of videos that Rico Reeds has put out on YouTube of Jerry Bergonzi. He’s got some great advice and some really cool techniques to improve your saxophone tone, articulation, & embouchure. This is a set of 14 videos courtesy of Rico Reeds. They have even more videos on their YouTube channel, some of which you’ll see pop up here.

#1. Jerry Bergonzi’s intro

#2. Jerry Bergonzi explains how to develop a concept of sound

#3. Jerry’s comments on Vibrato. I also have a cool post with an exercise that Branford Marsalis uses.

#4. Neck & mouthpiece test for a full sound. Tenor = Concert E, Alto = Concert Ab

#5. Breathing. Personally, I think this video should go first. No matter what instrument you play, breathing is THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT. I agree with his insights about the “yogic breath” (Liebman talks about this in his DVD “The Complete Guide to Saxophone Sound Production”). BUT, in my personal opinion, beware of what muscles you’re using to move air from your lungs and through the horn. Some people tend to push too hard with their abdomen and create tension in their throat and hands. You’re body naturally moves air in and out of your lungs, so just allow it do what it does: BREATHE. Check out this cool book titled The Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka. This was recommended to Bobby Shew by Jon Faddis and it’s what Shew recommends to any trumpet players trying to improve their range.

#6. Jerry talks about relaxing your throat for a good saxophone tone. He says a little bit about what I wrote for video #5.

#7. Articulation Pt. 1 – After attending Jerry Bergonzi’s masterclass at Tenor Madness in Iowa, I can tell you that Jerry actually has a fairly strange concept of articulation. When he’s playing fast lines, he says he ‘half tongues’. Although his technique isn’t as common among sax players, he makes some very good points about articulation and freeing up his tongue to do as many different things as possible. His colleague at New England Conservatory and Saxophone legend George Garzone has an opinion completely opposite Bergonzi. He did a masterclass at Lamont School of Music and explained that he almost NEVER articulates and teaches his students the same.

#8. Articulation Pt. 2

#9. Breaking in reeds – Another tip that might help people out there is putting a date on your reeds. As soon as I decide to use a reed in my rotation I put that day’s date across the back part of the cane. This lets me know how/if my reeds are holding up, am I going to have to change soon, are my reeds not lasting very long which could hint at a possible change in size, type, or brand, etc.

#10. Reeds & Embouchure – Explanation of his “non-embouchure embouchure”

#11. Reed Adjustment & the Relationship to Your Equipment

#12. Plug for Rico Reeds and their Reedvitalizer. I actually started using these early to mid 2008 and I hated them. But, I kept using them just to see how they would affect my reeds in the long run. I have to say after using them now for a couple of years, they are an invaluable tool. I just use one 73% humidity pouch in a tupperware container for all of my instruments’ reeds. These really do keep your reeds sounding and playing consistent.

#13. The Joy of Playing

#14. Jerry talking about his concept behind saxophone embouchure. There are Italian subtitles to this that cover some of the video screen, but it’s still a great tutorial on saxophone embouchure.

Shopping with Joshua Redman

William — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:36:51 +0000

While this article has absolutely no musical value, I thought this would be something funny to share with everyone. Follow the link to read the full two page article by Eric Asimov. Hint: there is mention of a personal Prada shopper….

STYLE | January 10, 1999
SHOPPING WITH: Joshua Redman; A Jazz Virtuoso Is Picky About the Details
By ERIC ASIMOV
AS Joshua Redman would be the first to tell you, he is a picky kind of fellow. Mr. Redman, the jazz saxophonist and band leader, was poring over shirts at the Prada store on Madison Avenue last Wednesday, looking for stagewear for his coming two-week tour of Japan. As his personal shopper at Prada, Ola Itani, brought in several dozen selections, each individually boxed with a clear plastic top, he zoomed in on defect after defect. The color was wrong on one, the collar too long on another, the shape on a third was too boxy and a single button on a fourth interrupted an otherwise clean line of Velcro closures.

Esperanza Spalding – Live @ Newport Audio

William — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:12:44 +0000

Okay, I am VERY excited! I just recently saw Esperanza Spalding and her band at the Schwartz Center at Emory University in Atlanta (my hometown). This was my first time seeing her live and I can tell you I was not disappointed. Esperanza is an unbelievably powerful performer. Her artistry transcends label. As one might expect from Berklee’s youngest professor in the history of the university, her Bass playing is spectacular. However, you may not expect all that Esperanza’s vocals have to offer. It is visceral and soulful, but has a force behind it fueled by a wealth of knowledge and the highest purpose. Her style is so effortless that it’s not that she’s a bassist and/or a vocalist, her entire body is its own instrument. Along with her old favorites from her album ‘Esperanza’, she had a host of new tunes. For example, she performed “City of Roses” about the city of Portland (her hometown), “Wild Is the Wind”, “Sunlight”, “Cinnamon Tree” about a friend of hers studying for the bar, and her querky new intro tune “Jazz (Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul)”. All of these songs and more will be on her highly anticipated 2010 album release, few details are available at this point though. This audio recording, provided by NPR, also has a tune entitled “Crayola”. Since it’s one audio clip, I’ve written the time markings for each song in the set. The entire set list is:

“Jazz (Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul)” 0:00 – 6:43
“City of Roses” 6:43 – 11:39
“I Know You Know” 11:39 – 15:59
“Sunlight” 17:05 – 21:46
“Wild is the Wind” 21:54 – 28:18
“Mela” 28:29 – 39:46
“Crayola” 39:50 – 47:03

Ricardo Vogt – Guitar

Leonardo Genovese – Piano

Otis Brown III – Drums

Joshua Redman – Slap Tongue Compilation

William — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:02:23 +0000

Joshua Redman – Birthday Song (Part II) Live

Joshua Redman – Tenor Sax, Organ, Effects

Sam Yahel – Keyboards

Jeff Ballard – Drums

The slap tongue portion of this video occurs at the very end, but it is GORGEOUS. In some of the other videos it is not nearly as clean as this.

Joshua Redman – Slap Tongue Intro

Joshua Redman – “Hide & Seek” Slap Tongue Intro

This takes place at the Jazz Alley in Seattle on June 7th, 2007. This is an amazing sample of Redman’s ability to slap tongue. It’s also filmed at angle that you can see a little bit of how he’s manipulating his mouth (except when the waitress gets in the way ).

Joshua Redman – Compass

William — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:15:11 +0000

Just checked out this official video by Nonesuch records interviewing Joshua Redman about his newest album, Compass. This is a really cool look into Redman’s early childhood and the concept behind this latest record.

Get Joshua Redman’s new album “Compass” from Amazon.com

Jaleel Shaw on Uncensored Interview

William — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:50:03 +0000

Hey Guys – I found an interesting site www.UncensoredInterview.com. They have some very cool interviews up there, one of which is with Jaleel Shaw. It’s a really short one on one, but I thought it was worth sharing. They also have another interview with another Alto Saxophonist, Rudresh Mahanthappa. I’ll be posting it very soon.

Jaleel Shaw: Don’t Just Stand There.

Also check out Jaleel’s website with some free downloads and stay tuned for my post on the equipment of players like Jaleel which will hopefully allow people to find the mouthpiece, reed, ligature, and horn combinations of a lot of these great players without having to dig through tons of blog threads.

Effects Rig – Jeff Coffin

William — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:57:30 +0000

Unlike a lot of artists, Jeff Coffin actually has his effects listed on his website under the section titled “Gear“. But, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to put it up and provide some links to some of the things he’s using and talking about.

Microphones

For his Saxophones: DPA 4099S (DPA Mics, DPA Wireless Saxophone Mic)
Flute & Clarinet: Shure SM32

Effects Chain

PreSonus Blue Tube DP Pre Amp
Shure Wireless Unit – not sure which model. However, DPA microphones claim that the DPA 4099S is compatible with almost any model wireless receiver.
Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron: The Q-Tron is an envelope filter. This is how Jeff achieves the funk-laiden Wah effect. One thing I didn’t see on the Q-Tron was a “sensitivity” or “response” knob. What this does is affect the swell of the effect based on dynamic level. What that means for horn players is that your articulation can control the tonal range of the pedal i.e. how drastic the “wah” sound. This may just be an oversight on his website, but it’s my understanding that most horn players (myself included) will opt for a pedal that reacts to your articulation rather than having a preset range. While I haven’t tried either of these pedals personally, Electro-Harmonix has a related pedal named the Q-Tron Plus with this option.
Eventide Eclipse: This is a rack mounted multi-effects processor and it’s what Jeff uses for his harmonizer and assorted other effects. This has around 100 preset effects and, due to the dual routing configurations, you can combine any two effects. This is a really nice effects unit and in all my reading about people’s rigs, Eventide is a great option for saxophonists and horn players in general. This doesn’t come without a price though. These run around $2,000, so unless you already have an idea of the type of set up you like and the types of effects that you use, it would be difficult to go out and start with this unit. If you’re looking for a harmonizer that will play more than one note at a time, without selling a kidney, check out a Digitech HarmonyMan. I was told when I bought mine that Digitech unfortunately discontinued them very recently. However, it’s still up on their website so keep your fingers crossed. Stay tuned as well, I should have a video up with some examples of what this pedal sounds like on Sax.
Rolls Midi Buddy Footswitch: Used to switch effects programs on the Eventide.
- Product Description, Manual, Images, etc.
- Free Downloads, Forums, Message Board, etc.
- The website’s a little tricky so the only way to get to the actually product page is to go to “Products”-> Accessories-> Under “Interface” click RP93s-> Right hand side of the screen Click “Use this with the following products”.

It looks like Jeff also uses a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modulator, which anyone who’s worked with this will tell you is a GREAT pedal. Keep in mind that Digitech has also come out with the DL4’s competitor, the Digitech TimeBender, which (from my reading) is converting a lot of people from their Line6.

Clarinetists

William — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:37:16 +0000

One of the fundamental ways that someone develops a good sound on their instrument is by listening to a bunch of artists that have good sounds. I realized a while back that while I practice and teach Clarinet I did not have a simple 5 or 10 list of names that I could just shoot off if any of my students asked for recordings to check out. So, I e-mailed one of my old Clarinet teachers, Andy Stevens, for a list just in case there were other doublers out there that were having the same issue. Andy is the Bass Clarinetist for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Clarinet at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, and I have him to thank for this list:

The following are great artists for the Mozart and Weber Concertos

Harold Wright – Principal w/ the Boston Symphony (any old recordings)
Robert Marcellus – former Principal w/ the Cleveland Orchestra
Anthony Gigliotti – former Principal w/ the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra

Great artist for Weber & Mozart Concertos and the Concerto by John Corigliano:

Stanley Drucker – Recently retired Principal w/ New York Philharmonic

Contemporary Performers:

David Shifrin
Larry Combs
John Mannasey
Todd Levy
Charlie Neidich
Ricardo Morales

Good European Clarinetists

Karl Leister
Sabine Meyer
Guy DeLecluse
Gervase DePayer

My ALL-TIME favorite Clarinetist, introduced to me by Andy:

Evan Ziporyn

I’d like to add some Jazz Clarinetists to the list as well:

Louis Sclavis (in French, but at least you can see some pictures)
Buddy DeFranco
Artie Shaw
Benny Goodman
Sidney Bechet
Art Pepper (mainly Alto Saxophone)
Don Byron
Jimmy Giuffre
Edmond Hall
Alvin Batiste (recently passed)
Eddie Daniels
Chris Speed (Contemporary Jazz)
Tony Scott (Italy)