Making Classical Saxophone FUN! - Jess Gillam

[@wendysulphur]

A delightful and informative interview. Thank you for sharing.

[@suzb7860]

I watched Jess in that BBC Young Musician final and was so taken with her sheer joy in playing and I'm so glad that she continues to build on that enthusiasm. A lovely attitude and an inspiration.

[@a.j.nicoll477]

This is the coolest approach to classical Saxophone that I've ever heard!

[@justinjohansen5992]

So glad to see this interview happen! Jess inspired me to get back into playing after reconstructive spine surgery forced me to drop out of all my bands. After hearing her Time album and seeing her videos, I got a cheap soprano and rested it on my knee to play while transcribing her melodies. Slowly worked my way up to alto. Jess’s soprano tone is simply gorgeous, can’t get enough!

[@bettersax]

thanks for watching. Great to hear her music had that positive impact.

[@geoffbeston6682]

As a result of this video I have just booked 2 tickets to see her and the ensemble at Nottingham Uni in May. Not something I would have even thought about before I watched it, so Thank You Jay, please keep up the amazing work you do for us.

[@bettersax]

Great! Enjoy the show.

[@georgia.newman]

You won’t regret it. They’re amazing. I saw and met them at saffron hall at Christmas. They were all really lovely as well.

[@dhsadara7363]

Jess Gillam is a gem. And so was your interview. Thanks, Jay.

[@dylancastle7649]

Love Jess’s playing

[@robstevens9590]

Jay, thanks for this interview! I never played classical saxophone before, but I was recently contacted by a "band" who asked if I could play some "jazz/blues" with them. It turned out that the "band" is a classical string quartet and I will be playing some classical numbers (plus one Gershwin number). A new experience.

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Great interview Jay. I love how Jess is thinking about bringing classical sax to a wider audience. Very interesting to hear about her reed setup too.

[@marklangsax1168]

Marvellous player and a great ambassador for saxophone. Jay had a slightly unfortunate air of amused scepticism about classical sax throughout but actually, because she is such a warm and vibrant performer and personality Jess connects well with children and young people who might not otherwise be drawn to sax or wanting to play it. And starting at 7? As I recall thats the same age Candy Dulfer started.

[@bettersax]

Mark, thanks for watching. I majored in classical saxophone performance in college. So what you may have interpreted as amused skepticism is actually just my natural reaction to things as someone who came up in the classical saxophone world and knows it all too well.

[@ronhowe5933]

Fascinating interview ... nice to hear her breaking the mould and pushing new grounds.

[@jonathanbrink3252]

Thank you for doing this interview! Classical saxophone is excellent…although often strays into some bizarre territory! As the great teacher and musician Marianne Ploger once said, “classical music isn’t the problem, but the way it’s taught and performed is often where the real problem is.” Jess has been doing wonderful things with the music! As much as I have loved studying and performing jazz over the years, it was always the “open-minded” jazz saxophonists who had the worst things to say about classical saxophone. It was disheartening. I have found myself playing classical saxophone in the most interesting places from bars to even being invited to a Phish (the rock band) festival…all sorts of places you wouldn’t expect to see this style of saxophone! It’s pure fun! It’s an opportunity for beautiful expression! What else does it need to be?

[@unclemick-synths]

I thoroughly agree with Marianne. After going through the classical method on trumpet, saxophone, and piano it seems to have two major drawbacks. In some people it can result in a hide-bound mentality where the tail of theory wags the dog of music (accidentals exist for a reason). Ear training is also severely neglected or at best not given context beyond a game of "spot the interval".

[@bettersax]

Thanks for watching.

[@joegaudette2494]

I thought it was a great interview Jay. Nice to see such a fresh approach and great attitude. Jess is truly a great ambassador and I’m sure she and interviews like this will bode well not only for classical music but all music in general. I too did some classical playing early in my career and at that time (45-50years ago) it was a definite challenge on a lot of levels and not very well accepted by the classical community as well as audiences so I’m really happy to see interviews like this one and hear about folks like Jess. Again, great job and please keep the great videos coming!

[@andrzejsamulak3995]

Great saxophonist! I've had opportunity to listen to her playing in Szczecin Concert Hall (Poland).

[@Marcosls2015]

What a nice open view of music she has, and that bias to make it popular, tearing walls! Thanks for doing this interview Jay!

[@bettersax]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@davidbartholomew6856]

Excellent interview which went into some fascinating areas that aren't normally touched on, stuff like performance and what touches the soul.

[@larrywarr3954]

Jess Gilliam. Breath of fresh air! Thanks Jay for a great interview. I now want to go to a classical sax concert. Hope you can do more like this.

[@perfectcelery]

Very grateful for this interview - inspiring, encouraging, informative. Thanks Jay!

[@martinyoung9392]

Jay, I absotuly love your videos ... this is your best ever, the empathy between the two of you is absolute. Aware of Jess through out the Covid lock down... this video should be a must watch thrugh out the sax community. Love you man !!!, but I love Jess more 🙂

[@shipsahoy1793]

Soprano is tough enough, never mind classical!🤯 You’re blowing my mind, Jess !🤩

[@Jwellsuhhuh]

Soprano is king. It’s like clarinet and oboe all in one

[@shipsahoy1793]

@@Jwellsuhhuh Idk.. I lean toward Tenor sax and then Alto regarding saxophones. I actually prefer clarinet to soprano sax, and trombone and bass clarinet over baritone sax. I also appreciate flutes and Bb trumpet. Idk if I prefer those woodwind and brass instruments bc of the jazz I love to listen to or what, but that seems to be the way I’m wired. Who would share my feelings, Idk😉

[@WorkinSteamin]

Jess referred to the great saxophonist/teacher John Harle several times. His mega two book package 'The Saxophone - The Art and Science of Playing and Performing' is very deep and covers many things that I had not come across in the well-known teaching materials (Aebersold, Bergonzi, Coker, Liebman) and the many current great online tutors such as Jay etc. usually aimed at jazz players. Well worth checking out - but pricey.

[@raseshgandhi6702]

Excellent information 👍

[@shipsahoy1793]

Thanks so much for the video, Jay.🎷🎷🎷🎷🎷

[@utube8181]

Very good interview, thank you. Jess is great and done amazing for her age.

[@EricTorreborre]

Saw her live last month in Amsterdam, she was amazing, with a very warm personality

[@doncook2052]

Thanks for posting this insightful interview. Lots to learn from such a talented and dedicated musician.

[@wyndhl8309]

What a great and valuable listen!🎶 👏

[@HonestSaxSound-unEdited-]

Great interview. Congratulations!!

[@DrRocketTurner]

Whoa, this woman is fresh and bold, LOVED her attitude and thinking! 🙏🚀

[@bettersax]

Yes, very refreshing!

[@GordonZoot]

Your best interview so far, you'll have to do a part 2 as this went by far too quickly 🙂 It wasn't mentioned but she has a show on Radio 3 (a UK national radio station) where she talks to young mainly classical performers about (and plays clips from) all sorts of music, a great listen - she really is one of the top driving forces for saxophone.

[@lukeserrano62]

There’s a lot to be said for saxophone focused concerts that mingle genres in a educative and non-patronising way. Many great saxophone quartet ensembles do this. Manage the challenge for the listener; Meet the audience where they are and take them by the hand to more esoteric corners of the saxophone world, both contemporary classical and transcriptions. Play some intriguing arrangements of pop songs with classical techniques. Weave around the genres; Jess is on the right track- she says she doesn’t know but actually she does!

[@angelicabrena7257]

Gracias a los dos por esta maravillosa entrevista. Estuvimos fascinados con Jess anocheen Aspen Music Festival

[@Joseph-tm5vv]

Mf, classical sax fun as shit. Classical sax goated asf. Just as much as jazz. I love jazz but never forget your roots. Jazz saxophone doesn’t exist without classical sax and the og’s like teal, mule, Londiex, and reacher

[@thesaxman]

Great interview…I’ve been following her on instagram for some time…free thinking on both sides…attitude determines altitude…looks like your 7year old has a chance to learn sax..keep em coming Jay

[@bettersax]

Thanks for watching Jimu!

[@unclemick-synths]

23:21 that's a great attitude about negativity. A sign of success! 😎👍

[@bobblues1158]

As far as other peoples´ opinions, my attitude is " If you so great, why am I up here (on the bandstand) and you down there?" obviously I am a "jazz player" with that attitude. Play for the music. And that is what you do. Jay thank you for this!

[@bettersax]

Thanks Bob

[@ShadowUnanimous]

If I would’ve know she was coming here. I would’ve bought a ticket.

[@paoloalbano4690]

❤️❤️❤️ loved this video, Jay...

[@herbbaasch885]

The music from the movie , Catch Me if You Can, by John Williams has a cool classical sounding alto sax running theme ,the best of both worlds ,jazz and classical. A true musician should be able to do both. It builds discipline.

[@DustinKreidler]

Wait wait wait wait... you can have fun playing classical saxophone?! I want my college years back for a do-over! Dana Wilson's "Sati" for alto sax, amplified cello and two percussionists was a notable, and awesome, exception. All the rest of it was grinding seriousness to get everyone to take it seriously... while we butchered Bach pieces for cello on bari sax, or violin on alto. The late 90s weren't a fun time for classical saxophone. At all.

[@DustinKreidler]

(And, to be clear, this interview and Jess' approach is amazing. Not sure I'll ever go back to classical, but this certainly lowered some of my resistance to the idea, earned over 4 years of increasingly stressful "very serious work" that was utterly lacking in fun.)

[@basapswoude9453]

great!

[@anairenesax]

Such a great interview! thanks for sharing!!!! :) by the way, most of my students are, or start to play the sax by the age of 7... ;) 😀

[@anairenesax]

And by way, classical saxophone players are also fun 😁 at least sometimes 🤣

[@JeffHendricks]

I majored in classical sax in college. There wasn't exactly a huge demand for it... I ended up going into I.T. instead. But I can play some sick French impressionist pieces!

[@sidneiramalho]

Super cool interview. My son is 5 and is always asking to play. Not yet. My goal is when he turns 10 at least.

[@axeleast8632]

Sid. Have you seen the Thomann Piccolino Kids Saxophone? It is for children aged from 5 years.

[@saxfoxthenext]

Hey Jay, thanks for another great interview...why not try a curved soprano for your daughter ?

[@michaelloehlein1582]

Is there any online amateur course / studio like bettersax that focuses on classical saxophone?

[@Joeybsmooth]

Jess just got someone a saxophone 😆

[@kwootamuckbear9294]

👂 listening ☮️

[@jeremymartin2883]

Great discussion! I'm really interested to hear about reed strength. I'm a classically trained saxophonist (Trinity College London) with fifty years playing behind me. In the 'old days' I used 'bluebox' 3.5 on Alto and 4 on Soprano - playing the 'normal ' classical set up of Selmer Square 80 C* (Alto) and B (Soprano). Over the past ten years I've totally changed. I now use Legere Signature 2.25 on both alto ( Selmer Claude Delangle) and soprano (Selmer Concept). For classical Tenor I use a 2.25 (Yanagisawa 3) and for Baritone, a 2 (Yanagisawa 6). I find I can do much more with these setups, get the sound I want, and still have a respectable altissimo on the Alto and Soprano. Why are we taught that to be a professional player we must use hard reeds. Nobody in the audience has complained when I've performed the Glazonov Concerto, Villa Lobos Fantasia or given a recital. Neither have the orchestras I play with or the young pop singers! Forget the brainwashing and give it a go... you might be surprised!

[@camthesaxman3387]

Wow, I've never heard of anyone using a Selmer B facing. That's really small.

[@jeremymartin2883]

@@camthesaxman3387 I do have use wider mouthpieces for different music styles. Normally a Francois Louis Spectruoso T260 (7-7*) or vintage Otto-Link ebonite (7*) on Tenor - both on the same Legere Signature 2, a vintage Berg Lasen Duckbill 120 on Bari and a Jody-Jazz DV7 on Bass (also great on Bari). My first ever mouthpiece was a metal Selmer Soloist C and I was taught to play using double (French) embouchure. I still practice with this each week as it ensures you don't 'bite' too hard - it's impossible to with this embouchure. It also greatly strengthens the facial muscles. Several big name clarinettists, such as the principle of the Vienna Phil, also advocate this and even use it in their performance for a special 'sound'.

[@camthesaxman3387]

@@jeremymartin2883 Yeah, plenty of great jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane, as well as my high school band director, used a double lip embouchure, but I find it much harder to keep the mouthpiece steady when it's not anchored to my teeth. I've had a clarinet teacher who wanted me to work up to a strength 4 reed (with a Selmer HS** mouthpiece), but I just couldn't handle it. Sure, it was a workout, but harder reeds aren't always better.

[@nolol153]

I know you might not respond but I have a really important question. How do you get over anxiety when playing your instrument on stage?

[@bettersax]

1. preparation 2. practice performing (do more performances) 3. deep breaths

[@axeleast8632]

Pamela Weston in her book for clarinet teachers writes that nerves are caused by uncertainty and fear of the unknown. Certainty comes from rigorous preparation not only of the music but the presentation of it. There is a section on "Reed Confidence" and her advice is to select a reed some time in advance and use it until the concert.

[@darwood6861]

At 7:40 she mentions that her first saxophone was an "Elkhart". Does anyone know what make or model she is talking about?

[@camthesaxman3387]

She holds the soprano like a clarinet.

[@Jwellsuhhuh]

It really doesn’t matter. It’s personal preference. As long as you can get a good tone and play comfortably there’s no wrong way to hold an instrument.

[@darwood6861]

I noticed the same thing. I wonder if holding the mouthpiece downward toward the chin contributes to the centered tone that she gets.

[@williamgregory1848]

The saxophone is so linked to jazz that it’s easy to forget that the instrument was originally designed for classical music. Its inventor, Adolphe Sax, wanted to make it an instrument of the symphony orchestra. At that time, however, the composition of the symphony orchestra was already firmly established, and it was argued that the timbre of the saxophone did not blend in with the rest of the orchestra in a natural way.

[@sharatssaxophone]

The world couid use a classical saxophone 'hit' that's used in a movie..

[@austinsnider7269]

Escapades by John Williams is a classical Concerto written for the movie Catch Me If You Can.

[@ThomAvella]

The love theme from Cinema Paradiso written by Ennio Morricone might be exactly what you're looking for

[@thelookingcat]

555 likes!

[@briancorbeille7382]

Yeah it definitely feels like Jay looks down on the classical community. Like we just haven’t been enlightened yet. 🤷‍♂️

[@bettersax]

Brian, I got my undergraduate degree in classical saxophone performance and am very much a part of the classical saxophone community. I will always bring to light things that I feel need to be addressed in the music world. I am constantly bringing up my concerns with problems in the jazz community here on the channel. There are pervasive problems that need addressing, and what people should take note of is that this topic comes up in just about every interview I do with players of all styles of music.

[@Jwellsuhhuh]

@@bettersax it’s because you keep making comments and finding it surprising about classical being fun. As if it’s not supposed to be. You’d be pressed to find that there aren’t any more bored classical saxophonists then there are bored jazz saxophonists. We know you do care and have experience with classical but you have the wrong interpretation of the current climate of it and are introducing it to your audience in a slightly demeaning way.

[@trup1372]

I feel as though jazz is the turn people take when they realize that classical sax is going to take a lifetime of work. Classical sax has a very disciplined tone, and the technique of jazz matches, but the tone is a just honks and shrill squeaks.

[@bettersax]

Wow, that ˆˆˆ 😯

[@DrRocketTurner]

Funny

[@trup1372]

@@bettersax well to be fair, that wasn’t what I expected when you said “Classical videos coming soon!” I thought you would play classical, but no, you just steered the conversation back to talk about how you thought jazz was better, but classical takes a lot of work

[@e.i1476]

Everything takes a lifetime of work This classical/jazz battle is completely unnecessary

[@trup1372]

@@e.i1476 Jazz takes a younger lifetime of work, so, cool. I don’t care it’s just stupid how jazz dilutes everyone’s image of the saxophone and classical composers even today don’t use it’s classical power.

[@kwootamuckbear9294]

When you can’t play jazz phrases….🤔🎶🎵🎷

[@austinsnider7269]

Geez, wonder if you could throw any more shade at the classical saxophone community? Maybe it was just me, but it sure seemed like every time the conversation got away from jazz you had a quip waiting. Kind of disheartening to see an ambassador and educator of the saxophone trying to keep the wall up between “classical” players and “jazz” players. If your interest in the classical saxophone music and it’s community is so low, maybe don’t interview them.

[@briancorbeille7382]

^^^

[@bettersax]

As a classical saxophone performance major myself, I am part of the community. This interview has quite the opposite intention you are alluding to in your comment though. Perhaps you did not watch all of it? No worries, I know it's a long one. The gist of it is, classical saxophone needs more people like Jess in order to reach a wider audience who feel included in the music. I make this exact same argument about jazz constantly. My intention is to help the classical saxophone community reach that wider audience it deserves. Thanks for commenting and I hope you find the time to watch the rest of the interview.

[@lyntedrockley7295]

Yeah its just you.

[@ekaufman4800]

What a great interview. I enjoyed this soooo much! I'm just a beginner and found so much to admire about Jess! Thanks for the discussion on reed size and smaller mouthpieces

[@austinsnider7269]

Yes, if only McAllister and Delangle played more arrangements of Thom Yorke and Bjork, classical saxophone would be more respected. You can gaslight me if you want, but I did watch it all. At the end you say “classical musicians making the wrong repertoire to bring to a wider audience.” What’s that supposed to mean? Skip the Creston and play some Billie Eilish? Outside of competitions and graded recitals for bachelors/masters/doctorates how many times do you see public recitals(not specifically labeled as contemporary) that are jam packed from top to bottom with the likes of Lauba, Kuster, Cockcroft, et al? Classical musicians are well aware that the genre is small and thus garners a smaller audience, so they make their recitals as approachable as possible, but we will still champion new composers and give thanks to the greats that came before. To ask them to cower to the masses and exclude Yoshimatsu for some “pop” arrangement or delete a 3 minute Lauba piece because the audience might not like it is disrespectful to the players, the great composers we have writing for us, and the audience. Not a lot of saxophonists are out here trying to be Andre Rieu. We have struggled for so many decades to be taken seriously as a classical instrument, to throw away what so many have fought for is nonsensical. If you have a different opinion, that’s fine. If one wants to be a crossover musician that’s fine as well. But when one teaches an audience that pop arrangements are “classical” one does a great disservice to the hard work that so many have spent lifetimes working on.