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-- Paul Desmond, January, 1976 Thanks to Paul Caulfield for the information. Just a note though: Even if you do acquire the exact same set-up as Paul Desmond, you will not necessarily sound like him. You will sound like you, with perhaps a hint of Paul Desmond's tone. Each player has a unique sound, and the best way for you to sound like Paul ...
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond [Doug Ramsey, Malcolm Harris, Dave Brubeck, Iola Brubeck] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
I am a Desmond afficiando and have been pursuing his type of sound for years. That being said, and with a small swell of ego, I can say that I do it fairly well. However, I most definitely have my own style and even my own sound on the horn. However, anyone who listens to me can determine my main musical influence was Paul Desmond.
Consider the set ups of two iconic alto players, Paul Desmond and Maceo Parker. Both used/use mouthpieces with close tips and medium hard reeds (3 and a half). Arnold Brilhart designed the current production mouthpiece that Maceo plays (it's a 3) in the 1940s about the time the first MC Gregory mouthpieces were coming on to the market.
My main influence for picking up the saxophone was Paul Desmond. I have emulated his sound and approach for decades and have played every single "Desmond" mouthpiece under the sun and collected as many examples of the Gregory Model-A and Gregory Master mouthpieces as possible, with the number approaching close to 2 dozen of each, with slightly ...
I'd bet a hundred bucks that if you had actual X-rays of Paul Desmond and Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon (he's always mentioned in these discussions) and Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz you'd find they're ALL using the standard saxophone embouchure which is the lower lip supporting the reed from below, essentially standing upright and the reed being pressed by contraction of the ring of muscles ...
He'd sound like Paul Desmond on a soprano. That's not being a wiseass. Listen to John Coltrane playing alto or Charlie Parker playing tenor. They sound like they usually sound but in a different register. Paul Desmond's alto sounds like a clarinet (by way of Lester Young) to begin with, and I don't see why playing soprano would change this.
I am TRULY THANKFUL that Paul Desmond loved his MC Gregory, that Stan Getz loved his Otto Link, that Gene Ammons loved his Brilhart, that Phil Woods loved his Meyer, that David Sanborn loved his Dukoff, that Joe Henderson loved his Selmer, and that Sam Butera loved his Berg Larsen. The list goes on and on. Listen to all those different brands.
I want to focus on the listening aspect of tone development, specifically concerning Paul Desmond. Something hit me while driving to church this morning, and I wanted to bring it here for discussion. Before he picked up alto, Desmond played clarinet. In several interviews, he has stated that he always liked Benny Goodman.
I saw Paul Desmond with Brubeck live at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium in the late '50s, 1958 I think. I was 17 at the time and had been playing sax for nine years. Desmond became my idol, the one I always wanted to sound like most, and I wouldn't place someone in his category lightly.