Squeaks Aplenty

Grendel squeaks, but that's expected. The one I was irritated by is the one that came from my new saxophone. The good people at the music store have been kind enough to fix it once already, but the fargin' thing was making a horrible squeaking noise because a couple of pads were rubbing against each other.

A few weeks back, the horn was unplayable because a pad had become loose, and wouldn't close properly. The nice woman who repairs saxophones promptly and cheerfully fixed it up. Much to my chagrin, the very pad that she worked on began to rub against the adjacent one. I made the good old college try of putting some fine oil on the pivot point, but that wasn't the fix. I trudged over to the store one more time to show it to the staffers. The guy who sold me the horn diagnosed and fixed it PDQ which I appreciate immensely.

I have been enthralled with the soprano sax since I got it. It is an ornery beast to play, and I find I have to be much more sensitive than if I were playing the alto sax. I've got to show some admirable restraint and play it with a lot more delicacy. I have a fair bit of lung power after 22 years of sax playing and 2 years of Pilates, so the trick now is to hold that in reserve rather than let it all out. Otherwise the horn is a squeaky and shrill thing that isn't very musical. My fellow bandmates have heard me exclaim "this is a f@%$#&*^ kazoo!" several times.

Having recently purchased a CD by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter performing piano and soprano sax duets, all I can think of is trying a similar project with Lividviv, who is my favourite pianist. The two of us have a musical rapport that borders on the uncanny at times. At least I think so. I can't speak for Lividviv, but I have seen her smile a few times when we grind our axes together. We've had loads of fun deconstructing pop tunes and playing weird things based on familiar ditties. I figure that nobody should try to recreate the sound of a tune exactly. What's the point unless you put your own thumbprint on it? Hopefully we can drag her back to the jam sessions in the near future. We'll just have to get her fired from her job so she can play with us all the time. (yeah... right) It would be nice. Gainful employment gets in the way of having really good chops.

Now the only squeak I have to worry about is Grendel. He'll stop that soon enough.