Autumn arrives. A week ago the kids were home visiting for the weekend, which was very nice. Michelle is doing well at college, having fun, making friends and enjoying her classes. Perhaps not surprisingly, she brought home a giant bag of laundry in lieu of luggage. Lizzy hung out with a bunch of her friends down here, and was good to see how they’re all doing too.
The weather has remained mostly mild, although we had a couple cool nights where we had to turn on the heat the next morning for a little bit. I’ve been resisting putting on the heat more than necessary, figuring this is a good time acclimatize myself to the cooler weather. Anyway we decided to take out the air conditioners this weekend, and then today got up close to 80 degrees.
Last Friday I got in a skate on my rollerblades, the third and maybe final time this season. Even though it’s been staying pretty warm, it’s getting dark earlier every day, which limits the time available to do things outside. Sunday I went for an epic bike ride thru the nature study woods, all the way to the far end and back. And I went up in weights in my workout like I’d planned. It’s been a a few weeks and feels good. So the next increase is in the offing.
I’ve been playing alot of bari sax recently. It’s been a while since the last time I took it out of the case, but I needed it for my new song Bluezebub. I spent a couple days practicing, getting my chops in shape on the horn, and then a couple sessions laying down the track. And it must say, it came out great. The horn has tone galore, and the action and intonation are better than I remember. Maybe cuz I’ve been playing more tenor then I used to before the plague times..
The bari is an old horn, a Conn 12M, which I brought from my brother years ago. He always considered it less than a pro-level horn, probably because Conn saxes were not particularly well regarded in the 1980s when we were students, and it is a big beast to manage. But I googled it, and the 12M is actually considered and all-time classic with a lineage dating back the 1930’s, the big sister of the legendary “Naked Lady” 8M tenor. The one I have was built in the 1960s, before production moved to Mexico, and has a giant fancy engraving on the bell that includes the words “Elkhart Indiana U.S.A.”. Everything about the horn, the pads and springs and all, are in great shape. My only real complaint this the thumbrest is not so comfortable. The mouthpiece is a hard rubber Otto Link btw, a great paring. So tone galore. And now it’s back in its case until next time I write a song with a baritone sax part. Unless maybe I can find a horn section band.
Meanwhile I really dig the way the bari part came out, so here’s a preview, without the other saxes and synthesizers, of the first half or so of the song. Enjoy!
https://zingman.com/music/mp3/bziv/Bluzebub27_bari_demo.mp3