Everything Saxophone Podcast

Jamey Aebersold was born July 21, 1939, in New Albany, Indiana. He attended college at Indiana University and graduated in 1962 with a Masters Degree in Saxophone. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Indiana University in 1992. He also plays piano, bass and banjo.

In 1989, the International Association of Jazz Educators inducted Jamey into their Hall of Fame at the San Diego convention. With this award, Jamey joins other jazz luminaries such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and others.

Jamey is a internationally-known saxophonist and authority on jazz education and improvisation, and has developed a series of Play-A-Longs (book and cd sets (now numbering almost 130 volumes) as well as various other supplemental aids for the development of improvisational skills. The Aebersold book and recording sets allow a musician the opportunity to practice and improvise with well-known jazz personalities at home as well as in the classroom. The recordings employ some of the best jazz musicians in the world. This concept has been responsible for changing the practice habits of thousands of musicians around the world.

Jamey was one of the first to encourage small group classes which concentrate on jazz improvisation, and he is the director of the Summer Jazz Workshops which now have 40+ years on record. Jamey feels that improvisation is something all people can do—and his clinics and lectures concentrate on demonstrating how the creative and spontaneous nature of each person can be brought to light.

Jamey’s jazz quartet plays numerous school concerts throughout the year which show young people how exciting playing jazz can be and they also explain the benefits of making healthy choices in their daily lives. The quartet stresses not smoking and drinking.

These week-long Summer Jazz Workshops are having a profound effect on musical communities around the world. The Workshops have traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark and Canada. Every summer there are at least two week-long Workshops in the U.S. These camps employ many of the finest player/teachers in jazz and are open to any serious jazz student regardless of ability or age.

• Jamey’s advice for everyone on improvising
• Why Jamey started the play alng tracks
• How the Summer Jazz Camps started
• The importance of listening
• How to deal with your ego when improvising
• How to learn the blues
• How to improve your jazz articualtion
• Why knowing your scales and chords is crucial for improvising
• How to improve your timing
• How to approach transcribing

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Jazmin Deborah Ghent is a national jazz and gospel recording artist born in Heidelberg, Germany and currently residing in Central Florida.

She was recently voted Best New Artist of 2017 by the Smooth Jazz Network.  She graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education/Jazz Studies and Tennesssee State University with a Master’s Degree in Music Education.

She currently teaches elementary music in the POLK COUNTY School System in Florida.

 Jazmin’s debut CD, “Boss” was released in June, 2015 and her current CD, “Chocolate Sunshine” was released on September 1, 2016.

The hit single,  “Compared to What” gained national recognition and was #5 on Smooth Jazz Charts.  It received over 400 spins per week including airplay on Sirius XM radio as well as Music Choice, Pandora and Spotify.

Her second hit from the Boss was the title song, Boss.  Both tunes were in the top 100 songs for 2015.

She currently has 3 hit singles from her current CD, “Chocolate Sunshine”  –  Chocolate Sunshine, Games and her current release “Hello”.

Jazmin has performed at the Newport Beach Jazz Festival in California; Steele City Jazz Festival in Birmingham, AL; Orlando Jazz Festival in Orlando, Fl;  Low Country Jazz Festival in Charleston, South Carolina; Rehoboth Jazz Festival in Delaware;  the Smooth Jazz Weekend in Melbourne, Florida; Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City, Florida; Red Cat Jazz Festival in Galveston, Texas and the Atlanta Jazz Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.

 She has performed with Norman Brown, Nick Colionne, Ronnie Laws, Kirk Whalum, Brian Simpson, Julian Vaughn, Nicolas Cole, Lin Roundtree and Jazz in Pink, Mindi Abair, Peter White, David Sanborn, Marion Meadows and country artist Keith Urban.  Jazmin was the winner of the “Show Your Talent” contest on the Smooth Jazz Cruise 2014 where she opened for the Sirius XM Hall of Fame Ceremony hosted by Marcus Miller.

 Her true passion is music!

Here’s what you’ll hear in this episode:

• how to create performance opportunities in your community
• how playing in church helped Jazmin become a versatile performer, and how you can bring your playing to the next level with church groups
• advice for classical players wanting to play jazz
• the key difference between straight-ahead jazz and contemporary jazz
• the importance of working on your standards
• Jazmin’s writing process and how networking helped her collaborate with renowned writers and musicians
• insights into the recording process
• how Jazmin balances teaching and playing

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This week’s episode is a good one. Dan Gelok from the University of Houston stops by to give us somewhat of a masterclass on controlling the saxophone. This discussion comes in the form of talking about voicing, overtones, and altissimo. All of which Dan is a master of both as a player and a teacher. So many players have trouble with this aspect of playing the horn and Dan does Continue Reading …

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Nigel McGill’s performing career is quite diverse, having performed with military bands, cruise ship ensembles, symphony orchestras and big bands.

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This week we welcome onto the show, the two Bobs. That is Bob Franceschini and Bob Hemenger. These two great saxophonists and educators are two of the three masterminds behind the Inside-Outside Saxophone Retreat which takes place in Tennessee every summer.

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Welcome back to another episode of the Everything Saxophone Podcast! I’m very excited to bring you this week’s episode with one of my favorite saxophone players on earth, Walter Smith III! Walter is one of the top voices in modern music and has recently released his latest album titled, Twio. Walter is from the music hotbed of Houston where he grew up around countless other top jazz musicians setting the stage for his career in music.

Walter studied at the storied Berklee College of Music, learning from countless saxophone luminaries such as George Garzone and Billy Pierce. After developing his own sound and skill set he has since had a busy career playing with the likes of Roy Haynes, Eric Harland, Continue Reading …

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