Everything Saxophone Podcast

This week's episode from the NAMM Show features a personal friend of mine, Jim Scimonetti. Those of us that live near Los Angeles know how much of a monster player he is on all the woodwinds. He owned a music store and repair shop in Lancaster, CA for many years, and has been performing professionally for almost 50 years. For the past few years, he has been working with Beechler & ARB Mouthpieces,...

This was a super-fun interview with 2 people at the top of their game in music. Mindi Abair has performed with Aerosmith, the Boneshakers and was the saxophonist on American Idol a few years ago. You can read more of her Bio on her site below. Theo Wanne has been studying and designing mouthpieces for many years, and some of the world's greatest saxophonists play his mouthpieces. When I was walkin...

Mauro Di Gioia is an entrepreneur, free-lance saxophonist/woodwind player, and the founder and President of ReedGeek, Inc. (which manufactures ReedGeek Products) based in Carson City, Nevada. For many years Mauro has dedicated his time to the betterment of reeds and reed performance for all woodwind players: publishing several articles on reed acoustics and adjustment in leading industry magazines...

Rovner Products started as primarily a ligature company, but over the years has expanded into mouthpieces and elegant saxophone stands. With the Rovner Deep-V Mouthpiece Collection, there are 2 offerings: the Avatar and the Aviva. Through extensive mouthpiece innovation, these pieces look and play like nothing you've seen before, with the main focus being on "presence". As their motto says, you su...

Originally from Houston, Texas, Jason Whitmore has been a resident of San Diego since 1996. As a graduate from the University of Houston with a degree in Saxophone Performance, Jason holds a deep appreciation for live performance that spans across all genres of music. Jason has been performing professionally in a broad range of musical settings since the early 2000's. He regularly performs house a...

Here's a little background on SYOS Mouthpieces… SYOS, which stands for Shape Your Own Sound, mouthpieces was founded by Pauline Eveno, a musician with a PhD in Acoustics. In 2015, she printed the first mouthpieces and some famous French saxophone players were using them. SYOS constantly incorporates feedback from musicians to improve their mouthpieces. And they have an innovative process, with ext...

This week, a podcast favorite stopped by the Legere Booth at the NAMM Show 2022. Donna spoke with saxophonist, Matt Lee, who now has a new single, Panama City Groove, which is streaming now. His prior single, One More Kiss, was #1 for 7 consecutive weeks in the Groove Jazz charts. Matt also has a new program, Sax Coach, to help other saxophonists release their own single. The link to his full biog...

Danielle Walker has been playing saxophones since age 11. She performed in all ensembles offered at her school, and at age 16, was the youngest and only female member of the group, The Jekyll Island Big Band. In 1998, as a sophomore at Brevard College, she was featured on the baritone sax with that college's Summer Jazz Workshop Faculty Band. The band was featured on National Public Radio, hosted...

In our 6th interview from the NAMM Show 2022, Donna interviewed Joel Pekin and Bob Sheppard, from Retro Revival. The Retro Revival company is known for their vintage replica mouthpieces, and are committed to making mouthpiece dreams come true by making exact Replicas of the classic mouthpieces from the Golden years, from the highest quality materials, and the finest hand craftsmanship. Joel Peskin...

The saxophone and jazz communities suffered a HUGE loss on July 21, 2022. Tim Price, a phenomenal woodwind artist and educator, who has been featured many times on this Podcast in recent years, passed away on that date. He had been suffering from a brain tumor for many months. How Donna Met Tim I had been reading Tim's articles in the  Saxophone Journal  for many years, and had gotten to know him...

Jody Espina is the founder, president, owner, and designer of JodyJazz Saxophone & Clarinet Mouthpieces. In 2018, JodyJazz acquired Chedeville and Espina and redesigned the entire line of Clarinet and Saxophone Mouthpieces while using all of the best elements of Chedeville's glorious past mouthpieces. In 2020, JodyJazz Acquired the famous Rousseau Music Products. Jody Espina is a highly regarded j...

In this episode, I interviewed Four time Grammy® Award-nominee, world-renowned jazz organist and Saxophonist, Joey DeFrancesco. He has more than 30 recordings as a leader under his belt, and has recorded and/or toured with his own groups as well as numerous renowned artists that include Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Diana Krall, Nancy Wilson, David Sanborn and many more. DeFrancesco has received coun...

Jeff Antoniuk has such an interesting background, having been born in Canada, and growing up in Nigeria. He's performed with Tim Hagans, Sherrie Maricle, Ingrid Jensen, Walt Weiskopf and Marcus Miller. He has fronted his own bands as a performer and composer, winning accolades from JazzTimes Magazine. Jeff is a well-respected educator, and currently is the Founder and Director of JazzWire, an onli...

In this episode, I interviewed classical saxophonist, Chika Inoue. Chika has been a guest on our show before – links to those episodes are in the show notes below. Chika has performed with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra, and many other orchestras in the United States, as well as internationally at Festivals in Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy and China. A native of Osaka, J...

In early June, I attended the NAMM Show in Anaheim CA. NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchants, an organization started in 1901 for companies in the music industry to connect, network and further their businesses. Music companies often show off their latest products, and endorsed artists appear, sometimes giving impromptu concerts right on the convention floor. It's an exciting sho...

Winner of Horn of the Year from the Blues Music Awards in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2015, Deanna Bogart has been electrifying audiences with her soulful saxophone playing, singing and dazzling keyboards for over 40 years. She is a bandleader, songwriter, arranger, and produces festivals and other artists. Deanna is also a sought-after educator/mentor/master classes/creative coach, while nonstop giggin...

A veteran of the international jazz scene, Max Ionata emerged in the early 90s and has performed with many modern greats including Robin Eubanks, Billy Hart, Joe Locke, Mike Stern, Bob Mintzer and compatriot Stefano Di Battista. Max sent me his answers in written form, so they were read aloud with the backing music coming from his latest collaboration with Dominik Shurmann, Moons Ago The link to h...

Today's episode is about playing in military bands… For this episode, I spoke with Larry Weintraub, saxophonist and clarinetist who has performed with Army and Navy bands from 1978 – 2005. He was first introduced to military bands by his teacher at the time, Ron Diehl, lead alto player for the US Navy Jazz Commodores. Since that time, he has traveled and performed all over the world. Over the year...

For this episode, I spoke with Steve Goodson, founder of SaxGourmet products and his Nation of Music website, which contains tons of articles and information about all the parts of the saxophone, saxophone design, mouthpieces, key clamps and much more. His SaxGourmet website has listings of Saxophone Makes and Models and Vintage Saxophone Value Guide.  Steve has been part of the Music Industry sin...

Grammy nominated saxophonist Tim Armacost has established himself as one of the most distinct saxophone voices on the New York scene today.  Touring regularly around the world both as a sideman and a leader, Armacost has worked with a phenomenal number of jazz greats, including Al Foster, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Victor Lewis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Peter Erskine, Ray Drummon...

Jamie Anderson has been playing professionally for over 25 years, and is the founder of the online saxophone website,  getyoursaxtogether.com . He has performed at venues like The Blue Note Tokyo, Glastonbury Festival and Munich's Olympic Stadium with artists such as The Four Tops, Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons, The Temptations, Joan Armatrading,Chaka Khan, the X-Factor TV Big Band and Incogn...

Tomplay is an interactive sheet music app which is used by more than one million musicians across 72 countries, and by hundreds of schools and conservatories worldwide.  The interactive sheet music  scrolls automatically on the screen synchronized with high-quality recordings  of professional musicians. Musicians can access a catalog of over  40,000 sheet music arrangements for 26 different instru...

Tenor, soprano and alto saxophonist, bandleader and composer, Pernille Bévort is a graduate of the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark. After completing her degree, she has become increasingly in-demand as a member of various jazz ensembles in Denmark and Sweden. Apart from working with small ensembles, Bévort has performed with several professional Big Bands in Denmark during the l...

Paul Cohen is one of America's most sought-after saxophonists for orchestral and chamber concerts and solo recitals.  Dr. Paul Cohen has rediscovered and performed lost saxophone literature, including works for saxophone and orchestra by Loeffler, Florio and Dahl as well as chamber works by Grainger, Ornstein, Sousa, Cowell, Siegmeister, and Loeffler.  He has published more than one hundred articl...

Paul Cohen is one of America's most sought-after saxophonists for orchestral and chamber concerts and solo recitals.  He has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, New Jersey Symphony,  and the Charleston Symphony.   His many solo orchestra performances include works by Debussy, Creston, Ibert, Glazunov, Martin, Loeffler, Husa, Dahl, Still, Villa-Lobos, Tomasi, and Cowell.  He has al...