electric saxophone, and electric trumpet (beyond Miles especially)

[JSngry]

Oh, btw, there is/was no such thing as a "Varitone sax". The Varitone was a device that worked off an input from the instrument, almost always through a pickup (usually on the neck; I've got an old King tenor whose neck has been patched/repaired as a result of having once been altered to accomodate a pickup attachment), although a few rare people ran it off a mike input. It wasn't a separate instrument.

I've seen a couple of Selmer horns that were modified for Varitonic activities. In addition the pickup on the neck of the horn, there was also a long tube or conduit that was attached to the body (tucked in amidst the rest of the keywork and lacquered to look like just one more rod). Apparently the wires would go from the neck pickup, down through that tube, then out from the lower end of the horn to the Varitone unit/amp. What I don't know is whether this modification was done at the Selmer factory, or if the Varitone folks bought up a bunch of horns and did the work on them.

Over the last year or so, I've done some experimenting with some effects on my tenor. I got a Digitech vocal processor, and have used it on some funk gigs to do some octaves, some fourthy doublings, and some envelope filter/wah effects. A little goes a long way...

Whoa, did not know that!

Apparently I am not correct that there was never such a thing as a Varitone Sax per se. http://www.saxophone.org/varitone.html

However, the notion of it being a separate unit added to a pre-existing horn is not incorrect either: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=39785

What's still not clear to me is if the actual "Varitone Sax" was simply a "Mark VI Plus" or a unique horn design unto itself.

[JSngry]

Ok folks, welcome to Geekland!

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=458

Specifically: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showpost.php?...amp;postcount=5

I did forget to mention that it is just a regular Mark VI with a factory installed sound transducer soldered into the neck and with a tube soldered to the body in which the wire is run. There is a bracket somewhere near the bell which the controller clips into so that you can reach down and turn the switches and knobs.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Eddie Harris was THE man! I recall he did funny things with trumpet, or trumpet mouthpieces on a sax or something.

Though the Sonny Stitt Left Bank album is one of my all time most favourite albums. That really shows you why a sax player needed the electric stuff; playing in front of Don Patterson blaring his brains out, a standard mike & amp surely wouldn't have coped.

Did Rahsaan ever play electric sax?

MG

[AllenLowe]

well, my wife was complaining to me the other day - she says:

"hey, you got all these electric gadgets, electric this and electric that. How come you never buy ME anything like that?"

so I bought her an electric chair -

[jazzbo]

Eddie Harris was THE man! I recall he did funny things with trumpet, or trumpet mouthpieces on a sax or something.

MG

He was the man. If I remember correctly, he played trumpet with a sax mouthpiece on occasion.

[king ubu]

Harris is one the forgotten/ignored greats. Not saying he was underrated, I don't care much for that concept - rather he was taken as kind of gimmick too often, it seems... all of the Atlantic albums I've got so far (on CD, that is) are fine or better, and he truly had his own sound, even to an extent on the electric tenor.

Lon, you remember correctly. There's a good example on this Enja disc:

http://www.jazzrecords.com/enja/7079.htm

And this disc also has his fantastic solo intro to "Funkaroma" to start things off - a great album!

[king ubu]

The trumpet w/sax mouthpiece can be seen here, don't know what the third thing is...

[DukeCity]

The trumpet w/sax mouthpiece can be seen here, don't know what the third thing is...

Looks like it might be a suona, and Chinese wind instrument (the smaller one in the photo).

[B. Clugston]

Wadada Leo Smith has played electric trumpet in recent years, mostly with Yo Miles, but also on Lake Biwa.

Toshinori Kondo is another trumpeter who is often plugged in.

Lol Coxhill used to play his sax through a Gibson Maestro fuzzbox.

[Rooster_Ties]

Opinions?? Worth seeking out?? (I know of everybody in the band, except Jeffrey.)

MG 12192 Paul Jeffrey's Electrifying Sounds (Savoy)

Jimmy Owens (tp) Paul Jeffrey (el-sax) George Cables (p) Larry Ridley (b) Billy Hart (d)

NYC, August 8, 1968

1. Made Minor Blue

2. I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry

3. The Dreamer

4. Ecclesiology

5. Green Ivan

6. A.V.G

[Chas]

Opinions?? Worth seeking out?? (I know of everybody in the band, except Jeffrey.)

MG 12192 Paul Jeffrey's Electrifying Sounds (Savoy)

Jimmy Owens (tp) Paul Jeffrey (el-sax) George Cables (p) Larry Ridley (b) Billy Hart (d)

NYC, August 8, 1968

1. Made Minor Blue

2. I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry

3. The Dreamer

4. Ecclesiology

5. Green Ivan

6. A.V.G

Earlier Discussion Here

[Niko]

for an impression of jeffrey, can't look it up at work but there used to be clips on youtube of dizzy gillespie's big band live 1968 where jeffrey takes an excellent solo somewhere

[JSngry]

Ok, I have been negligent.

Kullrusk, a quartet of Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson & my hero-in-(still)waiting Jonas Kullhammar (saxes/clarinets, electric & non- ), Sven Lindvall (bass, ditto), & Martin Jonsson drums. Everybody's involved in other projects, so the "focus" of this group is to play the music with this instrumentation. It's all pretty much uncompromising stuff, not different from what they play acoustically, but the electronics add textures otherwise unavailable, which make it subtly but undeniably "different music" than the same thing play acoustically.

Available on Moserobie records, supplies are limited, what's come out so far is probably gone already except direct from the label, but poke around and carpe diem when opportunity arises. These guys come to play.

Ok, seek and ye shall find.

Excerpted samples here: http://www.kullrusk.com/

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/alice_the_babs.mp3

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/twod.mp3

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/hard_shit_luxury.mp3

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/01_hellstone.mp3

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/05_he-mam.mp3

http://www.quesonegro.de/audio/07_merguez.mp3

Discs available from the Moserobie website: http://www.moserobie.com/main.html

CDs are "120 SEK except where noted. Price includes shipping within Sweden. For international shipping rates, please ask!"

120 SEK = 18.3473 USD Pricey, but for some, not astronomically so, and the music is damn fine. Proceed accordingly, I suppose.

Dutty Goove sells the CDs for $13.99, but again, supplies are limited, and if you don't get'em on the first shot, there ususally ain't no second shot.

[randyhersom]

An obscurity that fits is the band Friends which included John Abercrombie. I picked up their LP off a 5 star downbeat review, haven't played it in years. A little googling reveals that the electric saxist Marc Cohen changed his name to Marc Copland and his instrument to acoustic piano. Any CD sightings?

[randyhersom]

It looks like this link http://oblivionrecords.blogspot.com/search/label/OD-5 has legal postings, by the owners of the masters, of MP3s for Friends and Joe Lee Wilson's Livin' High off Nickels and Dimes.

[7/4]

It looks like this link http://oblivionrecords.blogspot.com/search/label/OD-5 has legal postings, by the owners of the masters, of MP3s for Friends and Joe Lee Wilson's Livin' High off Nickels and Dimes.

Thanks Randy, looks legal to me.

I'm lookin' forward to checking out the Friends album. Abercrombie & Copland are a favorite duo.

Edited September 22, 2008 by 7/4

[DukeCity]

Reading through this thread again, a discussion of electric saxophone and/or trumpet wouldn't really be complete without mentioning Mike and Randy Brecker. During the "Brecker Brothers" days of the late '70s they pretty consistently used an envelope filter/auto-wah (producing a Wah-wah effect but not requiring the footpedal wiggling).

Later, Michael Brecker was one of the first (and most proficient) adopters of the EWI. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the EWI is somewhat similar to playing the saxophone, in that it uses similar fingerings. But the physical technique is quite different, and it's actually a bitch to get very facile on the thing (I have one and have messed around a little on it, but not enough to claim any facility).

In the late '80s/early '90s Brecker would tour with an EWI rig of effects that were housed in giant racks. By the mid-2000's all of that stuff was on a laptop, triggered by some foot-pedals. And although I'm sure he was into the programming and design of his rig a little bit, he had tons of help from a guy named Judd Miller. I believe Miller actually spent some time as the touring tech for Brecker's rig.

Edited September 22, 2008 by DukeCity

[Free For All]

auto-wah

Wasn't that invented in Canada?

[Rooster_Ties]

for an impression of jeffrey, can't look it up at work but there used to be clips on youtube of dizzy gillespie's big band live 1968 where jeffrey takes an excellent solo somewhere

Thanks for the tip!! Here it be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVrmOYHkxH8

[Shannon Dickey]

The Clark Terry Impulse lp was/is some fun. His Veritone version of "Mumbles" is a crowd favorite. Good album overall.

Have not seen it on cd.

----HB

[.:.impossible]

I picked up a few Eddie Harris LPs today. Good stuff.

Silver Cycles, Plug Me In, Here Comes The Judge

I passed on them months ago when I saw them. Reading this thread got me interested. I'm glad I check in here!

[Rooster_Ties]

So, in terms of electric sax specifically, what Eddie Harris dates should I be on the lookout for?? Where should I start??

Preference for dates that have been on CD at one time or another -- but if there are "must have" LP-only things to consider, lemme know that too.

[.:.impossible]

There are a few cuts on Silver Cycles that I could now consider "must haves".

[randyhersom]

Downloaded, burned and listened to Friends, and like it. Unabashedly fusion, the electric sax sound usually resembles electric guitar more that acoustic sax. Wails.