Yesterday I attended the Keilwerth presentation organized by sax.co.uk
They booked a venue near the London shop to let us enjoy the main attraction: Kirk Whalum.
Of course I was in the shop two hours earlier to let Keilwerth people enjoy my comments and my playing (why limit this pleasure to the shop staff?) on their David Liebman soprano; an instrument that intrigued me but I never saw in flesh.
The Buffet representative and the Keilwerth product manager (Al Maniscalco) were there, really helpful, to show it to me.
An instrument developed by a musician like Liebman is a bit risky, since he is probably the most personal and complete soprano player (after Steve Lacy, OK) in history. Some redesigned keys (RH palm) are strikingly and beautifully original.
Well, that keywork is absolutely the most comfortable I ever tried.
Including a great side alt F# that I always find uncomfortable.
Cafe member David Roach was there too, but unfortunately did not have his soprano mouthpiece. I hope in his comments about the keywork as a classical player.
Sound wise, you all know where my heart is...
Then Whalum's performance.
I knew his music as a very smooth artist. Lot of reverb and carefully produced records. At the Virgin store he was our favourite choice for customers wanting "something like Kenny G".
Listening to him live was incredible. Such a deep earthy sound. Incredible jazz phrasing. Quite a revelation (pun not intended). Having no microphones really helps understanding a sound.
It will make me think about using different setups: he plays a pretty basic Vandoren mouthpiece.
After his performance, Al Maniscalco introduced the various models. He is a serious player, and managed to give an idea of the feels of the different models, rather than show off how good he is. And he is really good.
I am curious to try the MKX, the instrument he sounded better on, to my ears.
A great evening indeed and thanks to sax.co.uk for organizing it. (tickets went sold out immediately weeks ago, though)
They booked a venue near the London shop to let us enjoy the main attraction: Kirk Whalum.
Of course I was in the shop two hours earlier to let Keilwerth people enjoy my comments and my playing (why limit this pleasure to the shop staff?) on their David Liebman soprano; an instrument that intrigued me but I never saw in flesh.
The Buffet representative and the Keilwerth product manager (Al Maniscalco) were there, really helpful, to show it to me.
An instrument developed by a musician like Liebman is a bit risky, since he is probably the most personal and complete soprano player (after Steve Lacy, OK) in history. Some redesigned keys (RH palm) are strikingly and beautifully original.
Well, that keywork is absolutely the most comfortable I ever tried.
Including a great side alt F# that I always find uncomfortable.
Cafe member David Roach was there too, but unfortunately did not have his soprano mouthpiece. I hope in his comments about the keywork as a classical player.
Sound wise, you all know where my heart is...
Then Whalum's performance.
I knew his music as a very smooth artist. Lot of reverb and carefully produced records. At the Virgin store he was our favourite choice for customers wanting "something like Kenny G".
Listening to him live was incredible. Such a deep earthy sound. Incredible jazz phrasing. Quite a revelation (pun not intended). Having no microphones really helps understanding a sound.
It will make me think about using different setups: he plays a pretty basic Vandoren mouthpiece.
After his performance, Al Maniscalco introduced the various models. He is a serious player, and managed to give an idea of the feels of the different models, rather than show off how good he is. And he is really good.
I am curious to try the MKX, the instrument he sounded better on, to my ears.
A great evening indeed and thanks to sax.co.uk for organizing it. (tickets went sold out immediately weeks ago, though)
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