Audition

[kronos]

Hi everyone!

I'm an european saxophone player and new to this site. I'm not quite sure whether this ist the right place to post this question, but I'll just give it try (if you think my English is awkward, well you might be right since I don't talk or write in English that much):

In a few weeks I'm going to audition for studying music (Bachelor of Jazz Performance) and I just wanted some inspiration for the choice of songs for my repertoire. Does anyone have a good idea what tunes the university lecturers like to hear?

I need three tunes. My ideas so far: Confirmation, Spain, One for Daddy-O (blue note classic). But I'm kinda not happy with that choice. So, if anyone has got a cool idea, I would be happy if he/she shared it with me.

I play the alto and the tenor saxophone, but since I'm to poor to let my tenor saxophone be repaired at the moment, I'm going to audition on my alto sax.

Thanks for reading (and hopefully for helping)

kronos

 

[Juju]

Hi Kronos,
I like Confirmation and One for Daddy-O. I probably wouldn't choose Spain but go for a standard like green dolphin street, Love for Sale or maybe a ballad. But you need to feel comfortable with your choice, that's the most important thing. Do you know who is doing the audition? Did they give you any examples of tunes they would like to hear? What will they expect in terms of your "entry level"?
Good luck with the audition!
Juju

 

[Morgan Fry]

Confirmation is a great tune to play if you can play it. But if you're going to miss any changes or gloss over them, choose an easier tune to demonstrate that you can play changes, something like Four or Stella. OTOH, if you really can play the **** out of Confirmation then play whatever you want, it'll be fine.

In general, 1 bop, 1 blues, 1 ballad will give the most complete picture of you as a player, so I'd swap out Spain for a ballad.

 

[kronos]

Thanks for these great advices!

I do not know the lecturers personally so I don't know what they'd like to hear.

But ballad/bop/blues sounds like a good plan to me.

I think I got enough ideas for a bluesy tune. And I'm going to do a Charlie Parker tune for the bop part. But I'm not sure whether it's going to be Confirmation since I always use A LOT of Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker licks and I'm not quite able to make that piece my own. Maybe I'll do a bebop blues or some rhythm changes but that's no big problem to solve.

My problem ist the ballad. Though i played a lot of nice ballads in the past, I'm afraid my ballad repertoire is too common (stella by starlight, in a sentimental mood, ....). Does anyone know a cool ballad for me to check out?

kronos

 

[Juju]

Hi Kronos,
Chelsea Bridge is beautiful but very difficult. How about Early Autumn or You've changed?
Juju