Series: Saxophone | Publication Date: January 1, 2002
Renowned saxophonist "Sweet" Sue Terry has assembled 20 top professional saxophonists to describe, and play, the exercises that made them successful in Jazz, Classical, Pop, Broadway and beyond. Each artist gives you a personal look at how to practice that can help you improve your technical ability as you develop your own personal sound and style. Included are exercises and tips relating to technique, tone, intonation, musicianship, scales and chords, articulation, ear training, and much more. The two companion CDs contain even more information, plus each artist playing examples and solos.
"Sweet" Sue Terry began her professional playing career at the age of sixteen, playing for church performances and musical theater. She began playing Jazz gigs while attending the Hartt School, a well-known music conservatory in Hartford. Though she was accepted as a Classical clarinetist, her secret agenda was to study with the late Jazz legend Jackie McLean, which she did for five years. The Hartt School elected her Alumna of the Year in 2001.
Sue first heard Jazz music as a child growing up in Connecticut, where her father had an extensive record collection and she listened to WRVR FM non-stop. As a teenager studying with legendary pianist and educator John Mehegan, Sue mentioned she would like to write a big band arrangement for her high school Jazz Ensemble. Mehegan bet her an ice cream cone that she couldn't do it. She won. Since then, Sweet Sue has played and recorded with a variety of notable Jazz artists including Dr. Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, Charli Persip, Peggy Stern, Clifford Jordan, Melba Liston, Hilton Ruiz, Howard Johnson, Tim Price, Walter Bishop, Jr., Jaki Byard and Derwyn Holder.
She has also performed with Jazz VIPs such as Art Blakey, Carmen McRae, Jon Faddis, Lew Tabackin, Wynton Marsalis, Lew Soloff and Ray Barretto. She's been a Jazz soloist with the National Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the New York Pops, and has performed worldwide at venues such as The Montreux Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, Northsea Jazz Festival, the Blue Note in Tokyo, Japan, Quasimodo in Berlin, Germany, Marian's Jazzclub in Bern, Switzerland, and Spice of Life in London, UK. In the States she has been a frequent performer at venues such as The Kennedy Center in Wash. D.C. and Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
Her discography currently contains over forty commercially released CDs. She's the author of several music instruction books, and has received a number of grants and awards for her songwriting. Catch her regular column in the quarterly Jazz Inside Magazine. Sue's other passion is for the martial arts---she's a longtime practitioner of Taiji Quan and Qi Gong.
Her website is www.sueterry.net, where you will find streaming audio, an online weekly newsletter, free video and audio, a photo gallery, and more. When you visit, be sure to drop a line in the Guestbook. We'd love to hear from you!--Sandy Payson, Qi Note Records
Sue Terry is a Yamaha artist. She uses Jody Jazz mouthpieces, Consoli ligatures, Fibracell reeds, NeoTech straps, and SaxRax horn stands.
"Sue Terry on alto saxophone: one should almost say that this young lady is born for her instrument. That relaxed, exalted playing! That rhythmic feeling! That improvisational skill! Simply extraordinary!" --Die Wahrheit Berlin, Germany
"She has a formidable musical intelligence. . . " --Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD
"She plays like Charlie Parker reincarnated! She smokes!" --Jazz Central Station
This review is from: Practice Like The Pros (Sax Warmups) 2 Cd's (Saxophone) (Paperback)
This is basically a book of written and recorded masterclasses by top saxophone players based in New York City. There are a number of excellent discussions and exercises on varied topics pertaining to saxophone playing: dexterity and speed, articulation, learning scales, changes, tone production, breathing, the overtone series and much, much more.
While I have seen snippets of a few of the exercises elsewhere, nearly all the exercises have a unique spin to them.
There are twenty different practice routines or masterclasses, if you will. Each has a written summary of the topic and exercise and then the CD has the player explaning the concept in his or her own voice, sometimes followed by some phrases played by the player. The nice thing about the book and the CD is that they are not an exact copy of each other, so each becomes even more valuable.
I disagree with the other viewer, in that this is not a sequential method book, but a book of various unsequenced methods. Players could benefit by reviewing the entire book, choosing a concept to start on, explore it long enough to master it and move on to the next one.
This would be useful for sax players who have played long enough to have a sound concept, some knowledge of construction of major and minor scales, and some interest in improvising jazz. I think it's best directed to high school students, although there may be a few advanced middle school students who could benefit from it.
I got a number of useful practice ideas out of this, and I plan to use this with my high school and advanced middle school students.
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This review is from: Practice Like The Pros (Sax Warmups) 2 Cd's (Saxophone) (Paperback)
The book is a collection of exercises proposed by different sax players. Although interesting, they have no connection one with the next and so on. There is only one big fault on the CD that comes with the book: each sax line is played only once at full speed so it is difficult for the beginner (my case) to follow the music sheet on the book. If it had, like most guitar books have, one line at slow speed and the next at full speed, it would be perfect, saving us beginners a lot of trouble rewinding the CD lots of times in order to get each lick right.
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This review is from: Practice Like The Pros (Sax Warmups) 2 Cd's (Saxophone) (Paperback)
Sorry I waisted my time and money on this book. After reading some of the reviews on this book, I thought I'd give it a try. Now, after receiving this piece of garbage, I think the reviewers must have all been friends of Miss Sue Terry. I'm sure she's a good Saxophonist, but she should stay away from writing (if you want to call it that) books. Sue's contribution to this book was less than one page. The whole book its self is very thin, not much to it at all. It may have been a better book if she had of written most of the content herself. Most of the featured artists wrote more about themselves as to who they've played with and studied with, than giving us something we can use. Most of the Artists only wrote about 5 lines on a single page and showed us some simple scale or patterns, we've all seen before. Nothing is talked about here in any great detail. You can find much more and far better info on the Internet for free than in this book.
If you want a good book on tips for playing and practising the saxophone, check out: 101 Saxophone Tips...Stuff All The Pros Know And Use. By Eric J. Morones
101 Saxophone Tips: Stuff All the Pros Know and Use (Sax Instruction) It was of some value and had a lot of good tips. Something we sax players are always looking for. He also has a good list of "high-note fingerings" some that I had never seen before and worked very well.
Hope I can save some fellow sax players out there of some disappointment.
