This coming Thursday, 7/20/23, at 2 PM EST I'll be live streaming a discussion with some of the foremost experts on Michael Brecker. We'll be exploring what's in his recently published notebooks and how he practiced and used what's there. Rick Margitza, world renowned saxophonist and Brecker transcriber, is joining us from Paris. David Demsey is joining us from the Michael Brecker Collection at William Paterson University with Brecker's original notebooks in hand. Luis Palacios, who did a dissertation on Brecker's playing and hails from Northwest Nazarene University, and Chuck Sher and Larry ..read more

Earlier this month I presented at the International Saxophone Symposium on voicing, embouchure, and sound, and I thought I'd shrae the presentation slides here. I'm still working on incorporating all of this new info into an approachable method that still relies on your ears. More on that soon ..read more

  There is a great new resource out there for aspiring and developing jazz saxophonists called The Jazz Saxophone Book. It's pretty epic in scope, and addresses a lot of less treated subjects, which is great, including techniques for creating variations, playing out via melody, and developing mastery of your creative art.  Tim and I had a really interesting conversation about the book and lots of different aspects of improvisation and saxophone playing. Check it out below ..read more

Hey, I've recently discovered some great music I wanted to share. I listened to Michael Brecker back in high school but only sporadically since then. Recently, I rediscovered why he is so awesome. I found two albums where I think his sound and improvising are just soooo good. Here's a song from each of them: A player you likely haven't heard of before, Pernille Bévort is a fantastic sounding saxophonist and one of the great saxophone voices from Scandanavia's jazz scene. She recently released a live album with a chordless group - Bévort 3. It was actually recorded in front of ..read more

 This post takes you throgh the basics of voicings, to overtone practice, and finally to altissimo practice and fingerings. Feel free to contact me with any questions at benbrittonjazz@gmail.com. Voicing Voicing is a combination of your tongue, vocal cords, and soft palate position. You can use it to stabilize and tune notes, change timbre, and inflect and stylize your sound. Sciency Explanation: You are tuning a standing wave that the reed is creating in your mouth. You control the wave, and the wave affects how the reed vibrates, which then affects how the standing wave in the sax vibra ..read more

Today's post is an interview with another saxophonist/composer, Matt Steckler. He has a new recording with Dead Cat Bounce, a fun group consisting of saxophone quartet + rhythm section. He's done a lot of great writing for the group, and I'm stoked he took the time to answer some questions. I'm sure you'll find some insight and inspiration for your own practicing and writing here. How do you approach writing for a saxophone quartet? MS: Dead Cat Bounce being an impure quartet (bass/drums added), my approach here is likely different from others'. I'm more likely to take inspiration from rhyt ..read more

I recently got to talk to two talented saxophonists and get insights into their playing, practice, composing, and recording and performance experience. I'll be posting a second interview with Matt Steckler next week, who writes for a sax quartet + rhythm section. Be sure to come back and check that out.  First up is Ben Kraef. If you haven't heard his name before, that's likely because he's based in Berlin. A very talented player with a robust sound and inventive melodic approach to improvising, Ben has recently collaborated with Andreas Lang and Anders Morgans on a record called Jazz Gal ..read more

 Hey everyone, My college is hosting a live-stream of a fantastic jazz quartet featuring not one, but two great saxophonists, Doug Stone and Donnie Norton. In fact, on a few tunes, there may even be three saxes (yours truly).  The show is today (3/26/21), and it's free on zoom and starts at 8 PM MT (10 PM EST). Here's the link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9403953706 ..read more

I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by some friends at the musician's toolbox podcast. We had a nice discussion on writing music and fiction that go together, practice-experimentation to find the best most efficient methods and exercises, and succeeding at the music school thing. It was a nice conversation and definitely worth listening to if any of the above interest you. Here's the link: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-musicians/019-ben-britton-composing-gzxSmilI8t_/  ..read more

 Happy New Year everybody! Hopefully, 2021 will be a heck of a lot better than 2020, though that's yet to be seen. I know it's been quite a while since I updated the blog, and now I've got a bunch of exciting stuff to put on here. New Sextet: Sound Expression I'm super excited to debut my new group, Sound Expression. We'll be playing a live-streamed show on January 16th, at 7:30 MT. You can tune in live, or you can watch the show after the fact. You'll find more info here: https://csi.veeps.com/stream/events/0b3cd24d607c Interview Doug Stone's Tenor Talk Podcast A great saxophonis ..read more