Tim Price Bloggin'For Rico- NAMM SHOW 2011- Tim Price Unleashed in California

Here are my impressions of NAMM 2011... held this month in Anaheim, Calif. I went out as a endorsing artist for my good friend and one-of-a-kind mouthpiece artist Theo Wanne. We performed two times with the Saxophones Unleashed project. The players and the mood of the gigs fit right in with the perfect California weather and excellent audiences NAAM provided. Let it be said that in this world of manufacturers and endorsements that Theo puts his heart and soul into the music that he loves and also totally backs and loves all of his endorsers. To say Theo is a cool guy is an understatment. THE BEST!

The concerts featured a wide variety of styles. Everyone was given features and everyone was given a chance to play together. It was totally enjoyable. For me, getting a chance to finally play with Keyan Williams, Keith McKelley, Eddie Bacus Jr. with the first class Los Angeles rhythm section was just plain out of sight. Video should be coming and also some in-booth videos of me and Keith playing spontaneously improvised duos in the booth and the Saxophones Unleashed crew playing with some backing tracks. The variety of styles and musical agendas showed the vast artistic dimensions of Theo's mouthpieces within the players' personal styles.
One of the other reasons this NAMM show was so important was it gave me some time to network with my many friends on the West Coast, and demo and talk about the most innovative mouthpieces today by Theo. Meeting the crew of Matt Ambrose and Jim Scimonetti was a great honor- fantastic human beings and musicians.

Some well needed hang time with Rico's own Rob Polan was another highlight. Rico always has the coolest new products for NAMM- and is the real deal in modern tech. on reeds. There is no reed on the market that has the cane quality of a Rico. The new RESERVES are killin', and you owe it to yourself to be checking out the current products. Rob is the cat- and one of the bright spots in todays music business. Oh yeh!

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a firm believer in networking and sharing within the musical community. Be it jazz, or rock, or even people who are branching off it into some more personal areas where boundary lines have faded. I myself am a fan of faded boundary lines. With that said, one of the first people that was at the booth was my longtime friend and incredible saxophone player Sam Phipps. Sam, as many of you know, is a mainstay on the Los Angeles scene. He was the saxophone in the Oingo Boingo Band for years - if you remember Oingo Boingo you might remember somewhere mid-set a saxophonist playing "Body and Soul" like Coleman Hawkins. That was our man Sam - Sam is also one of the most unsung rock 'n' roll saxophone players on the planet. As Thursday started to develop, the booth got swarmed. Fun was being had. Theo realized the game was on and he and his cool brother Tom became more and more excited as the energy developed. Some of the other people that came to the booth to hang, try mouthpieces, and say hello was Ernie Watts. A long time friend and inspiration, it's always inspiring to hear Ernie and hang. Ernie tried my horn and sounded absolutely incredible on it. Theo measured his Link mouthpiece and we all realized it was larger than Ernie thought it was. Since Ernie plays a mouthpiece that is huge, this was pretty hysterical. At the same time, Marty Krystall had taken residency in the booth and added to the rapport. Marty, as many of you know, is one of the most unique tenor saxophone players in jazz. A longtime Los Angeles studio player specializing in woodwinds, Krystall has the velocity in his improvisations of a Steve Lacy. That's right, he's that good. Krystall also is on hundreds of motion picture soundtracks and part of the historic playing in LA with jazz legend Buell Neidlinger. It was also cool to have Rick Keller show up and knock us all out with his personal sound and soulful playing. Robert Kyle I had never had the honor of meeting before, and we hit it off instantly, I had heard of Robert's playing over the years, and finally was able to converse with him and realized how close we are to so many things we love. Aviva, who many of you know as the purple saxophone playing goddess with The Monkees, came by and shared with me a new CD of hers, which is beautiful. Aviva has that boundary line between just great music and accessibility taken care of. She's funky and has the roots that go all the way back to the masters, but once you hear her, you know who it is for life. A definite asset to Davy Jones' and The Monkees' music. Eddie Baccus Jr. was on hand trying mouthpieces and just enjoying himself like crazy. What a great guy.

Lots of other saxophone players like Ann Patterson, Carol Chakin, John Yoakum, John Reilly,Vinny Golia, Brad Rambur , Jack Prybylski, Benny Maupin, the great Marion Meadows and so many others, that I know I'm forgetting a few.Not to mention friends like Bob Weir, Tom Scott, Dweezil Zappa & family, the beautiful Nancy Huang & cool Jennifer from RDG Woodwinds in LA. It's great to have friends that support. Ya'll rock!!
One of the highlights of the NAMM show for me was meeting people that I had not had the chance to meet before but had conversed with through the years online. These kind of things are important to me because, for those of us in the musical community, we must keep the blood of the brotherhood flowing. That said, Prybliski took a stroll to look at some horns over at the Buffett /Keilwerth booth - my friend Laurie Orr greeted us and it was sure nice to see this snazzy well-dressed New York City woman in California doing what she does best, which is helping people with the great products she represents. Laurie is an asset to this business and a long time NYC friend. As Jack and I were checking out some of the tenor saxes, Jack spotted Tom Politzer. As many of you know, that are Tower of Power fans, Tom has held the hot seat on tenor saxophone for a good many years now and as he's doing it plays his ass off every night. Tom was quick to inform me about something that changed my life that instant. No sax fans, it wasn't a five-digit vintage horn, nor was it anything of the sort. It was a small little bar called REEDGEEK (http://www.reedgeek.com/). This is one of the most profound reed-adjustment tools I've ever had in my life. All I can say is, buy it. It is designed by Mauro Di Gioia and probably one of the greatest investments any single reed player can make in his life. Tom adjusted one of my reeds that had started to swell at the back from the change in climates, with a few single strokes the reed was back to normal and I was a happy camper. Mauro not only is a forward thinker but somebody who is very concerned with what can happen to a reed as it's being played and also balancing it within that life period. The REEDGEEK is something I can't live without now.

Another cool thing was on Saturday night, running into my New York friend tenor titan Tim Armcost and also finally meeting Danielle Mays - a terrific woodwind player and totally hip funny woman. There's so many things that I'll be adding throughout the next few weeks that happened at the NAAM show that I'll share with you. This is just some of the highlights. Some other highlights will be some in depth talks with John Klemmer on this blog. Stay tuned!

On Sunday as the show calmed down and closed out, I was taken to dinner by Los Angeles baritone sax - woodwind studio friend Jennifer Hall. For those of you who are fans of the cartoon show Family Guy and Dancing With the Stars - those are two of Jennifer's studio gigs that have put her on the map recently. She took me for some great Italian food that was some of the best Italian food I've ever had. Mangia Mangia was the experience in Huntington Beach! Trust me, I'm a frequent visitor to Little Italy in New York City, which Jennifer has accompanied me to, when she's on the East Coast, and she couldn't wait to see what I thought of this food. It was incredible. Her mission was accomplished. That event made the journey home, which took me from Orange County, Calif, to Philadelphia on United Airlines all day. Thank god I was smart enough to party all week and make sure that I went to bed by about 5 a.m. and wake up before 10 a.m. for a brisk walk around Disneyland so that the travel time could be spent sleeping and not getting annoyed at the incompetence of air travel these days. That said, the NAAM show was a success and Theo and I and his uber-cool brother Tom are already doing a countdown till next year's show.

I've listed CD's by the guys who recently laid copys of their current recordings. Look for my friend Brad Rambur too- he's got a great one out there! As well as Keyan Williams, Keith McKelley and Jack Prybylski. These guys are the new cream of the crop- and a must for your ears! Find their stuff in Itunes and CD Baby. Beautiful players all!

Also I urge you to listen to these artists listed below and friends new projects- every CD has a destination of it's own- and a beautiful story.

Marty Krystall- " Mojave" ( Gunsmoke)

Ernie Watts- " Four Plus Four"

AVIVA- " Reed MyMind"

Bob Sheppard- " Close Your Eyes"

Ron Dziubla- " Some Strange Blues"

Till next week- keep on truckin'...Tim Price

http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=Jerry%20Lacroix%20&init=quick&tas=0.5343706750233063#!/photo.php?fbid=491074894772&set=a.75018284772.75917.738199772

Tim Price Blogging For Rico Reeds-NAAM- Ernie Watts and a heads up for next weeks blog.

YouTube - Ernie Watts trying out Tim Price's Selmer Series III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxpKBvJXzk0

This was from NAAM last week- in California- and Ernie Watts loved my
Silver Selmer serie 3 tenor. HE SOUNDS GREAT!!!
I got to get to Matt at Theo Wanne that did this because there's a spot in one of the videos with Ernie Watts- playing " I Want To Talk About You"....Killin'!!! Ernie is a long time friend and we always have a ball!!!
Ernie was also doing some great " triad pairs" at the Theo Wanne booth- on my Selmer.
But stay tuned my friends- because next weeks RICO REEDS BLOG will be about my trip to the NAAM SHOW and the people and cool things that went into making it a great trip!! Blog will be Monday January 31!

STAY TUNED~ Tim Price

Tim Price Blogging For Rico Reeds- Winter Stuff To Shed

WINTER STUFF TO SHED FROM TIM PRICE....

Check it out and enjoy.... also- for some more ideas....check through these ; IF...you want some ideas on ii-v's...look here; http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/iiV.pdf '

If your looking for a nice warm up / sax sound study-look here; http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/sax_warmup.pdf

for info on tune study; look here; http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/learningatune.html

reed info, look here; http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/dealingwreeds.html sax players food

for thought:look here; http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/creativepurity.html

A nice jazz line using II-V. http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Dec00.html And a I-VI-II-V...of course http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Jul01.html

If you check my web page- you'll find some intervallic studys on II- V. http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/intervalic1.jpg

For those interested in some Bird & bop to shed...check out; http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Bird-ologyStudy.html http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Bird-ologyStudy.html

Enjoy~ TIM PRICE

Random Thoughts...

Random Thoughts on Mouthpieces, Reeds and Other Stuff
By Mike Zucek
7-11-09

Yes. I know. Judging from this blog’s title, it sounds like I couldn’t come up with a suitable topic this month; and that would be exactly the case! I’ve got a horrible case of “writer’s block”, and thought if I just started putting down thoughts that randomly came to mind, I could work through it. So here goes:

· Arnold Brilhart, designer of many famous woodwind mouthpieces, was actually part of the “Manhattan Project” to develop the first atomic bomb. His expertise with early forms of injection molded plastics led to his involvement.
· Rico cuts ALL its reeds with natural diamond cutters instead of the more common carbide cutters. Cane is a very abrasive material and wears out carbide cutters very quickly. The long life of diamond cutters makes for a product superior in consistency.
· At one time, Rico made a reed line for the Japanese market called “Nova”. These were Mitchell Lurie clarinet and Frederick L. Hemke sax reeds packaged as a private label brand for Yamaha.
· Getting back to Arnold Brilhart; as far as we can tell he made the first mass produced synthetic woodwind reeds. These date back to just after WWII and were injection molded plastic with a molded-in “grain” on the cut. They were either silver or gold in color and were sold under the “Enduro” brand.
· In addition to making “Roy J. Maier” reeds as a private label brand for The Selmer Co. in the seventies and eighties, Rico also marketed the same reeds as “RJM” brand reeds in many export markets.
· Rico produced a synthetic reed in the early 1980’s called “Rico-Plex”. These were actually produced from the same molds as Arnold Brilhart “Enduro” reeds but in a “natural” cane color.
· Lastly, when Rico first introduced the Brilhart-designed Rico Royal “Metalite” and “Graftonite” mouthpieces in the mid-eighties, we used to demonstrate the strength of their material by intentionally bouncing one off a hard surface to prove it wouldn’t break. (I remember repeatedly doing this at the Mid-West clinic Rico display!) At any rate, we once had a visit from the staff of a very well-known music trade magazine. Being eager to show off the new mouthpieces and their ability to withstand harsh treatment, one of our top executives let loose with the “unbreakability demonstration” by throwing a Graftonite mouthpiece against the wall in the production area. The mouthpiece hit the wall, bounced back and hit the executive square in the forehead and then hit the floor and bounced around. Sure enough, the mouthpiece didn’t break, but our executive needed some first-aid to stop the bleeding!

“See you” next month!

Rico… global and/or local!?

Dealing with artists all over the world, I frequently have musicians from one part of the globe asking about the situation of Rico in other corners of our planet.
A simple fact is that more and more players (whatever their profile is) are exposed to Rico and therefore can test and choose what works best for them from our reed line.
Rico is not ONLY played in North America by jazz players! We have more and more top classical orchestra players from Europe or Asia… and of course USA and Canada using Rico reeds. RICO is a GLOBAL brand not only repertoire wise but also geographically wise. That’s why Rico remains the leading reed manufacturer worldwide.

Now, can we define specific trends when dealing with musicians from different countries and musical cultures? Of course! And that’s why it makes our job even more interesting!
Without speaking about specific “schools”, there are facts that we take into account when collaborating internationally with musicians or in our R&D approach.
Here are a few examples:

CLARINET

• Germany with a specific clarinet system that requires adequate mouthpiece and therefore reeds. Rico designed the Reserve German reed for this purpose.
• England with a tradition of “more opened” mouthpieces that require softer reeds. Rico worked with English players on the calibration.
• Another tradition in some Eastern European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey where the traditional clarinet requires very soft reeds.

SAXOPHONE

Because the saxophone is one of the most recent designed instruments, we don’t have such “musical cultural” gaps when dealing with the international saxophone community.
However, the tradition of classical saxophone being rather recent for example, a lot of players from Eastern Europe came to this repertoire after playing clarinet or bassoon… or jazz and therefore with sometime specific requests when choosing reeds.

For saxophone jazz players, it’s surely the easiest situation when it’s definitively a “globalized” market, mostly dominated by the American jazz tradition.

It’s our job to understand these trends, traditions, musical cultures that make the music world so rich to offer the best to clarinet and saxophone players all over the world when picking a reed.
By understanding the “local” dimension, we enrich our “global” offer!

That’s why Rico is proud to propose such a large selection of reeds and accessories to make sure that each musician can find THE sound he/she is looking for.

A Career In The Music Industry

A Career in the Music Industry
6-15-09
Mike Zucek-Regional Sales Manager
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Like many of you, I once dreamed of playing my instrument for a living, but reality set-in after I left college and realized the tremendously competitive nature of such a proposition. Fortunately, in addition to my love of music, I also had a keen interest in what we made music with; in other words, the instruments and related equipment of our art.

So one day I walked into a small band instrument repair shop and talked the two proprietors into hiring me as an apprentice repair tech. At that moment, my life’s direction changed, although I hadn’t yet realized it. I abandoned the thought of becoming a professional horn player, as well as a band director (my “backup” career choice) and embarked on a successful life-long career in the music products industry.

The experience I gained learning to repair musical instruments at that little shop led to a position with a larger company. When an opportunity opened up in the sales dept, I took it. When I had an offer from a downstate music store that would double my meager salary, I took that. The experience I gained there led to an offer from a major west coast company, Rico, which just happened to be the world’s largest maker of woodwind reeds, among other things, so I took that. After 21 great years there (and an MBA with Rico’s help) my wife and I moved back home to the Mid-west and I worked as a District Manager for Yamaha for nine years. This, in turn, led to my current position at D’Addario, when they decided to purchase…. Rico!!

So what’s the point of all this? Simply that one can have a great career in Music without playing for a living. Did I play at all? You bet! For most of my career I played in a great variety of local orchestras, opera companies, church groups and bands. Along the way “rubbing shoulders” with some pretty well known artists and continuing to enjoy the thrill of making music. And if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Looking for the perfect reed…

With the new Reserve baritone, Rico is completing this month the launch of the whole Reserve line particularly dedicated to classical saxophonists (of course, it doesn’t mean that other players cannot use it. Just try it!).
After my experience of 10 years working for Henri Selmer Paris and now 3 years as Market Development manager for Rico / D’Addario, I had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with many key classical saxophonists.
But what means being a classical saxophonist? Do they have specific “needs” in terms of reed set-up?

All is about looking for the perfect reed… for the «magical» reed with the perfect sound «ready to play”!
· A warm and full sound with a lot of resonance,
· A good articulation on the whole range of dynamics and for all styles and techniques,
· Longevity as being sure that the selected reed will go thru the all concert is an imperative.

But let’s never forget that weather conditions and human factor could change so many things!
Therefore, despite the high quality of reeds, musicians have no choice but learning about how to select the real good reeds that will give them comfort in each different situations.

Some musicians may advice to constantly listen to your “voice”… The sound that is in your ears and one good reed will indeed help you to find your sound. It is a very challenging balance to find but feeling comfortable remains the most important. The reed is therefore a kind of “second nature” for classical saxophonists.
The Rico « Reserve » saxophone reed line really helps the musician to find a great sound quality.
Great cane selection, specific design for classical repertoires, strength consistency especially if you protect your reed with ReedVitalizer tools.
Then, be confident in your reed to build Your sound!