Playing Earl Bostic sound

[chadders]

I have been listening to Earl Bostic recordings over the weekend - What a revelation!! How does he get that distinctive razor blade/ buzz saw tone? He must have lungs like a blacksmiths bellows !!!

Chad

 

[kevgermany]

Take one wide mouthpiece. Throw away the lig. Glue on a 1/8th plank of bamboo using Bostick super impact glue. While that's drying do 6 months of 2 hrs exercise per day with industrial strength chest expanders. At the same time practice picking up a spare mouthpiece with your lips only, using a normal embouchure. Progress slowly, adding the neck and then the body. After 3 months you should be able to do 20 iterations of mouthpiece plus neck plus body without breaking into a sweat. FOr the final 3 months repeat the exercise, firstly with Bari (allow 1 month) and bass (allow 2 months).

Then start playing.....

 

[Taz]

Take one wide mouthpiece. Throw away the lig. Glue on a 1/8th plank of bamboo using Bostick super impact glue. While that's drying do 6 months of 2 hrs exercise per day with industrial strength chest expanders. At the same time practice picking up a spare mouthpiece with your lips only, using a normal embouchure. Progress slowly, adding the neck and then the body. After 3 months you should be able to do 20 iterations of mouthpiece plus neck plus body without breaking into a sweat. FOr the final 3 months repeat the exercise, firstly with Bari (allow 1 month) and bass (allow 2 months).


Then start playing.....

🙂))🙂)) I like it, I'm sure it'll help your playing no end, but just try the good old sax growl. Just hum tunelessly whilst playing. It'll take some practice to get it right, you'll almost choke to start with, it'll sound cr@p and you will loose all your air support. BUT DONT GIVE IN! It'll be soooooo worth while in the end.
Also remember that a growl should be used to enhance a tune, not dominate it. Having said that, whilst your practicing it, just use it for everything. IMO it's the easiest way to learn. Just do it!

 

[thomsax]

Earl Bostic was using a heavy vibrato and "The Great Shake" but he was also one of the best saxplayers ever. He really controlled his sax. Clarence Clemons is also playing with a heavy vibrato. I think good exercises like long tones helps up. Start play the note straight, add a vibrato in the middle and get of the the tone straight. A mouthpice with wide opening, quite hard reeds and a long lay/facing (M facings ...) works for me. Try to a tenor reed on an alto mouthpiece. I have read that he played tenor reeds. I don't know his setups (I think it changed over years) but I have seen pictures were Bostic was blowing a Martin sax.

Thomas

 

[Morgan Fry]

Growl. Pretty much all the time.

 

[rhysonsax]

There was a story that Earl Bostic played with a bit of a razor blade inside his mouthpiece (no, honestly). A bit like the removable spoiler in some Runyon mouthpieces, I suppose.

Can this be true ?

Rhys

 

[Pete Thomas]

There was a story that Earl Bostic played with a bit of a razor blade inside his mouthpiece (no, honestly). A bit like the removable spoiler in some Runyon mouthpieces, I suppose.

Can this be true ?

I don't see why not, however he had the chops to be able to get this sound without adding any gizmos. It is also rumoured he used a tenor reed on alto mouthpiece. Same agin, he might have but could have got that sound anyway.

What you hear is down to great vibrato, growl, projection and to some extent the recording techniques.

 

[Jules]

There was a story that Earl Bostic played with a bit of a razor blade inside his mouthpiece (no, honestly). A bit like the removable spoiler in some Runyon mouthpieces, I suppose.

Can this be true ?

Rhys

I'd heard this one too.... Incredible player- wasn't there a quote by one of the great jazzers (Art Blakey, I think) saying Earl Bostic knew the sax better than any other player- including Bird and Cannonball..... (ok, a contentious viewpoint but...)

 

[Chris98]

Did Earl Bostic play a beautifully smoky yet sleazy version of 'HarlemNocturne'? or am I thinking of someone else? An alto player?

 

[Jules]

Did Earl Bostic play a beautifully smoky yet sleazy version of 'HarlemNocturne'? or am I thinking of someone else? An alto player?

Yup... pretty much the definative version....

 

[TomMapfumo]

Was he any relation to the Famous Welsh Button Free Tenor Sax player Dai Evostik.......? He stuck it into his 90's........;}

 

[John Laughter]

http://www.myspace.com/earlbostic

 

[Sue]

I'd heard this one too.... Incredible player- wasn't there a quote by one of the great jazzers (Art Blakey, I think) saying Earl Bostic knew the sax better than any other player- including Bird and Cannonball..... (ok, a contentious viewpoint but...)

I'd concur with that from my own very amateur point of view 🙂

 

[Young Col]

Instantly recognisable and swings like crazy. You can hear his use of alternative fingerings to give a slight diffference in timbre to a repeated note; wonder if he got that from listening to Prez.
YC

 

[John Laughter]

Did Earl Bostic play a beautifully smoky yet sleazy version of 'HarlemNocturne'? or am I thinking of someone else? An alto player?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ziYBiMiq0

 

[jazzsaxman]

He was just awesome. It is pretty much acknowledged that he had some kind of spoiler in his mouthpiece but it is his diaghpragm and breath control that I find really amazing. This coupled with the false fingerings, honks, great shake, vibrato etc just makes him so distinguishable from others.







Yanagisawa 9932J Tenor, Theo Wanne Ambika 7*,Vandoren ZZ

 

[altissimo]

I'd heard this one too.... Incredible player- wasn't there a quote by one of the great jazzers (Art Blakey, I think) saying Earl Bostic knew the sax better than any other player- including Bird and Cannonball..... (ok, a contentious viewpoint but...)

"Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird. Working with Bostic was like attending a university of the saxophone. When Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot." - Art Blakey

I read that Coltrane used to sit next to Bostic whilst driving from gig to gig asking endless questions and jotting it all down in his notebook

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Bostic - Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed on his Martin Committee alto sax

 

[BeBopSop]

Hi all, after reading some posts, re Earl Bostic, it made me think of some more 'wide vibrato' players (I can only think of Earl and Sidney) I thought it would be interesting for some of us on the forum to submit soundlips 'giving it some vibrato' I have put my effort over in 'soundclips'! After listening back to it I think it needed even more vibrato to sound like Sidney!

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed

I've got the same piece, a Beechler Belite on my Silversonic, tried the tenor reed and it simply just does not work.....but there again i aint Bostic, so quite possible....

 

[altissimo]

it seems like he played a Beechler Diamond Dot in the latter part of his career, there's a picture of him here posing with one - http://earlbostic.com/

there's some discussion here - http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?26191-Mouthpiece-for-Earl-Bostic-Sound