Here is the listing:
http://www.doctorsax.biz/YTS61_4097.htm

I made the move—I bought myself a 1973 Selmer Mark VI! Very exciting stuff, but that also means I have to pay for it. As a result, I’m selling both my Yamaha YTS-61 and my more recent horn, my 1961 King Super 20. For the moment, only the Yamaha 61 is up and ready for sale. I have it listed on consignment at the local Madison saxophone repair shop, Kim Slava’s “Doctor Sax” shop (and web site).

Here is a thorough review of the Yamaha YAS-61, the alto equivalent the YTS-61 tenor sax. The author, Stephen Howard, is a highly respected woodwind repairman from England.

It’s a fantastic horn for many reasons. It looks great, feels great, and most importantly, it sounds great! If you’re looking to get a pro horn with terrific intonation and finger work modeled on the Selmer Mark VI (at less than half the price!), then you will like this horn!!! Thanks for checking it out…

This is a fine article bringing much needed attention to the sad state of UW-Madison School of Music’s Jazz Studies Program, or lack thereof.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/university/article_d43136ce-5ad2-11df-bd28-001cc4c002e0.html

It’s odd we have a intellectually curious city with a Big Ten university, yet it’s a town afraid of anything “hip-hop” and the university doesn’t currently offer a jazz studies degree or even grant performance credit for its jazz ensemble.

This isn’t the first time people have tried to bring attention to the lack of a jazz scene in Madison. Local jazz musicians and appreciators of jazz have a hard time keeping jazz on the radar. We lack a steady jazz venue for jazz concerts (although the latest effort for jazz at the Inn-On-The-Park is a nice start). The fact that the UW-Madison does not offer a jazz studies degree only compounds the problem.

If you think the UW-Madison should create a Jazz Studies degree, then I encourage you to write or email the UW-Madison administration in support. You can also check out the Facebook fan page titled, “Help Save UW Jazz.”

Here is the contact info:

Chancellor Martin (biddy.martin@chancellor.wisc.edu)
161 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Dr
Madison, WI 53706

Lori Berquam (lberquam@odos.wisc.edu)
75 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Dr
Madison, WI 53706

Gary Sandefur (gsandefur@ls.admin.wisc.edu)
105 South Hall
1055 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706

I’ll be spinning at the Great Dane Fitchburg once again, this time on Saturday, May 1st from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. I hope you’ll join me for the fun!

Why come out to the Fitchburg Dane?

• There’s no cover. The music is FREE!
• Good beer, drinks and food
• Pool tables, pool tables, pool tables
• Huge shuffleboard game
• You can even play their Wii!

My DJ set consists of solid selections of reggae, hip-hop, funk, soul and R&B. I also have a saxophone or two set up to play along with some instrumental jams I’ve got in the mix. It’s DJing with a twist, something a little different.

Thank you for the warm reception at last month’s Great Dane set! I’m looking forward to doing it again!

Hey Music Fans!

The Jimmys are playing on Friday, April 2nd at The Hody Bar in Middleton, WI from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Don’t miss that one. It’s always a hot time playing at The Hody. Throw some Jimmys gasoline on the mix and you’ve got yourself a bonfire!

Then on Saturday, April 3rd, The Clyde Stubblefield Show will be playing at The Harmony Bar on Atwood Avenue from 9:45 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Don’t miss this great opportunity to see everyone’s favorite Funky Drummer playing in town on a Saturday night!

Hey Folks,

I’ll be DJ-ing twice this month. First, I’ll be one of two DJ’s at Scatz Nightclub (Middleton by CostCo) on Friday, March 19th from 9pm to 2am. My friend Lucien and I, along with DJ Web Spinna from Milwaukee are hosting a T.G.I.F. Party in the upstairs lounge at Scatz. I hope we’ll see you there. The cover is $5 and we will be sticking to our theme: Keeping it Cool, Hip and Sophisticated!

A week later on Saturday, March 27th, I’ll be DJ-ing at The Great Dane Fitchburg. It should be a terrific time. I’m looking forward to keeping the vibe pumped from 10pm to 2am. The beer is great and the music is FREE! Keep an eye out on my sax—I’ll be bringing it with to provide a few surprises during the evening!

And if you’re from Kalamazoo, Michigan…you’ll dig knowing that our friend, Kevin McFadden, will be in town and in attendance for the Great Dane gig.

For more information, check out www.djfunkysax.com. Cheers!

Now that’s a damn good movie! Jeff Bridges deserves the Best Male Actor Oscar. Period.

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/crazyheart/

Sunshine daydreamin’…

Mandelbrot Fractal Set Trip To e214 HD from teamfresh on Vimeo.

Again, great to talk to Nick at Guitar Center today. He suggested I check out this site. He said he learned most everything he knows now about Maschine and Ableton by watching videos from here.

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorials/

Dig it! Thank you!

Well, I took back the Axiom Pro 61 midi keyboard/controller. I had some success with integrating Ableton Live with the keyboard, but ultimately, this keyboard controller (to the tune of ~$500) didn’t live up to my expectations. It had no “brains” or “guts” inside. No internal sound banks, not even a collection of sounds that you could install on a computer to trigger (like Reason or Native Instrument samples). It’s just a nice semi-weighted 61-key piano surface with 8 faders, 8 knobs and 8 pads to control Ableton (or other software).

In the end, it just failed to work well for me. Admittedly, I’m at a beginner’s level with Ableton, but the bottom line experience was that, even after a month of dedication to getting the Axiom Pro/Ableton Live relationship to work, it wasn’t really going anywhere.

“I’m sorry, Axiom Pro, but this isn’t really working out.”

Fortunately, the recovery period is very short for failed software/hardware relationships. I just had a great 30 minute conversation with a Shure mic rep who happened to be at Guitar Center when I was returning the keyboard, who also is a DJ and musician in Chicago. He heard me explaining the situation to the GC guys and told me how he’s composing and arranging grooves. He uses Native Instrument’s “Maschine” with Ableton to make music, keeping the Ableton software relevant, but replacing an empty shell keyboard controller with a equally priced hardware/software groovebox with tons of sounds and added resources.

Direct link to stand-alone video (uncropped)

He confirmed that the technology out today is amazing, but there are so many options that it can get very confusing trying to figure out what products to invest in. I was totally going back to getting a used Akai MPC 1000, which I’ve been craving for a long time, but I’ll have to seriously consider NI’s Maschine, instead.

Maschine comes with 5 gigs of awesome sounds and integrates with a laptop or other computer. I was surprised to learn that Maschine is not resource heavy, so he said I would be able to use the NS7 and Maschine together on the same laptop (which I thought was incredible). Sweeeet! It functions as a sequencer, a sampler, an arranger and effects array. And it can connect with my existing full-weight 88-key keyboard. No need for more keyboards….done.

Time to do more research…