I
own a Selmer Mark VI Alto, 159,000 series, circa 1969, and a Yanagisawa
9932Z Alto which has a solid silver neck, silver bell with gold
plated interior, bronze body and bow.I have been playing the Yanagisawa
predominantly since December 2004. I have 3 alto mouthpieces that
I play, a New York Meyer, 6M with a small chamber given to me
by the great Kenny Hing, a mid-70's Meyer 6M, refaced by Jon Van
Wie, and a newer stock Meyer 6M. I use a Francois Louis ligature
on my alto with Rico Jazz Select Unfiled 3 Soft Reeds.
My
tenor is a Selmer Mark VI, 141,000 series, circa 1967. I use an
Florida Otto Link mouthpiece from the late '50's that was refaced
by Jon Van Wie, and then additionally refaced by Ted Klum. It
was opened to about a 6* (.095), with a Francois Louis ligature
and with Rico Jazz Select Unfiled 3 Medium Reeds. I also have
an early 60's duckbill hard rubber Berg Larsen that was refaced
by Ted Klum.
I
prefer mouthpieces that are not too open, I feel that I can control
the sound and pitch better with these pieces. You can still get
a big sound with a smaller mouthpiece, and it seems I can play
over the horn more evenly. Once while I was on tour with The Lionel
Hampton Orchestra in Germany, we learned that Eddie Harris was
playing a club nearby. All of the saxophone section went over
to check him out. He was playing beautifully, it was wonderful
to hear him. He told me that he didn't like open mouthpieces and
that his piece was a rather closed older mouthpiece (a Selmer
mouthpiece, I believe). He said that he could play from the bottom
of the horn to the very top with this piece and the control was
better for him. He didn't have a very loud sound by modern standards
but on a mic and in the studio, the color of his tone is just
otta sight (as the recordings will testify).
My
soprano is a new 9930 Yanagisawa, solid silver body, with a Bari
64 mouthpiece, with a Hemke #3 1/2 reed. I have two baritones
and I use either a rubber Yanagisawa #7 mouthpiece or a Meyer
6M rubber mouthpiece with a B & G leather ligature with Rico
#2-3 reeds or LaVoz Meduim or Medium Hard reeds. I have a late
50's, serial number 82XXXX, low A Selmer Mark VI baritone that
was previously owned by Nick Brignola that was left to me by my
late friend, Gene Riordan. I also own a 1950s Silver plated Conn
Naked Lady baritone.
My
clarinet is a 1970's Buffet R-13, with a Vandoren B45 (dot) mouthpiece,
with a Vandoren Optimum ligature, and Rico Reserve 3 1/2 Reeds.
I also have two Vandoren 5JB mouthpieces, that I will use sometimes.
I heard and spoke with Kenny Davern once at a festival shared
with the Hampton Orchestra, and he was telling me about his Vandoren
mouthpiece, which he said was a prototype of the jazz mouthpiece,
that he helped design for Vandoren. I'll tell you, his sound carried
clear out into the theatre, a big fat clarinet sound! I started
out playing clarinet studying traditional European methods, and
sometimes I have trouble controlling those big clarinet openings,
so I've begun to lean more towards the smaller opening since I
prefer the sound of Artie Shaw, Jimmy Hamilton or Benny Goodman.
Although I love the big sound that Barney Bigard got, and such
control!!
My
flute is a Trevor James Virtuoso model, solid silver headjoint
and body.
On
my own gigs, I use a Sennheiser 421 microphone or a Shure SM57,
and I have an AKG clip-on microphone.
My
computers are a Macintosh 933 Mhz G4 Laptop, and a 350 Mhz G4
PowerMac, running OS X.3. I use Band-in-a-Box for practicing,
and I have Digital Performer and Finale 2004, although I am in
the newbie phase with these programs! I like to transcribe pieces
of solos and play along with recordings, I have been using iTunes
with MP3s lately to do that. I also travel with a 5th generation
video iPod.
Marshall with vocalist Marlena
Shaw in Orange CA, Summer 2003
