Since the very first horn Adolph Sax made, which may actually have been made from wood, people were
waiting for French made Selmer horns. The best all round horns available, even the modern horns have
great tone and intonation with good fingering patterns and good projection. Coupled with a big bore
mouthpiece, bright resonators and big lungs, my Super Action 80 Series II can actually play as loud
as guitar, drums, bass and keyboard on stage. Impressive that I do not need amplification.
HISTORY
I started playing saxophone when I was 9 years old. When they were assigning instruments,
three girls in my class were chosen to play the alto and I got clarinet, I think. I wanted to
play sax so bad that I asked to play tenor, and they let me! Only problem was I couldn't
carry the horn home, I was too small, so my parents bought me one for home so I could
practice. As I progressed through the grades, I started some pretty crazy bands as I became
more bored with classical music which I was actually playing bass clarinet on, not sax. My
real experiments in sax began when I reached the west coast of Canada and discovered my roots
are in funk, R&B and jazz.
EXPRESSION
I really believe that saxophone is the very best solo instrument for expression, though there
are many others that do more, the sax can sound mad, sad, soulful, funky, hard rock hard bop,
what sounds can you not make with a saxophone. I once said to a fellow sax player "I
would love to have some effects on stage" and his response was "but you should be
able to make all those sounds with your horn already". I agree.
WHAT I PLAY
I use Selmer Super Action 80 Series 2 Alto, a Series 1 Tenor and a Mark VI Baritone, synthetic
reeds on all three. For mouthpieces, I use a Claude Lakey or Dukoff Metal on Alto, a Dukoff
Metal or hard rubber Otto Link on Tenor and a Selmer metal or Rico Graphite on baritone. Drop
me a line and let me know what mouthpieces you use.
