Michel Doneda: Soprano Saxophonist and Sound Artist

I've been a fan of soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda since discovering his music around five to six years ago.  Michel and fellow soprano player Bhob Rainey are two players whom I view as being beyond just free jazz soprano saxophonists; these guys are sound artists.

Michel, who hails from Toulouse, in the south of France, has been a pillar on the European improvised music scene since the early 1980s. Some of his closest collaborators over the last thirty years include singer Beñat Achiary, percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, hurdy-gurdy player Dominique Regef, and bassist Barre Phillips.

Michel is one of my go-to guys for extended techniques. I'm particularly interested in his use of sound clusters, playing two to three extended techniques once, creating these really unique clusters of sound.

Here are just a few that I've discovered:

1) multi-phonics played with the flutter tongue

2) air sounds with key clicks 

3) playing in the altissimo with a flutter tongue and throat growl. 

4) swaying the horn from side to side while playing multiphonics

5) playing kissing sounds with reeds squeaks

And he's also known for his economical use of space. He might improvise for a good 10 minutes before playing any line or conventional melody.

This video features him in a trio with guitarist John Russell and drummer Roger Turner during a 2011 performance at London's Vortex Jazz Club, which has been the city's foremost presenter of contemporary and free jazz since 1987.

Here you can hear his extraordinary control of air sounds (and it's not easy to play them with such velocity and at different dynamic levels) as well as his extensive use of the flutter tongue.

This is just one of the series of soprano players I'll be featuring over the next few months.

78th Annual-Readers Poll (The Soprano Saxophone Category)

I was happy to see that I had made the 78th Annual-Readers Poll in Downbeat magazine. I'm always grateful for any kind of public acknowledgment. It took almost 15 years just for people to start calling me a soprano saxophonist. So for me to appear in any poll in the soprano saxophone category is a milestone as far as I'm concerned. That being said, I always hoping see more people listed in the soprano saxophone category who actually play the instrument.

And I do understand why soprano specialists are often overlooked. One reason is that polls such as this are more about name recognition, than that person's contribution on  his or her instrument. An alto or tenor player on Blue Note or Concord Records, who doubles on the soprano will get many more votes than some idiosyncratic DIY soprano player, just from name recognition--regardless of the significance of their work.

Also, soprano players rarely get a chance to piggyback the success of others. If you're a tenor saxophonist, you could gain notoriety by performing in the band of some high profile trumpet or piano player. I call it GBA (Great by Association). Soprano players don't typically get hired to play in other people groups; we have to path our own way--which is often a more difficult and slower route. I probably get hired to play in other people's groups than most soprano-specialists, but it's pale in comparison to sax players who play the alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones.

But I'm fortunate to have found all my fellow straight-hornists whom I've connected with from around the world. When I first switched to the soprano 18 years ago, the only living soprano-specialists I knew about were Steve Lacy and Jane Ira Bloom. Today, that list has grown significantly: Gianni Mimmo, Harri Sjostrom, Bhob Rainey, Heath Watts, Jane Bunnett,  Joe Giardullo, Kayla Milmine, Lol Coxhill (RIP), Michel Doneda, Nikolas Skordas, Petras Vysniauskas, Stefano Scippa, and Michael Veal. And the list is steadily growing.

 But I feel very positive about the future of the "problem child" of the saxophone family --a soprano sobriquet used by Steve Lacy. As more and more soprano-specialists emerge, and continue to document great work showcasing the beauty and uniqueness of the instrument, we'll see fewer and fewer doublelers flooding these polls. In the meanwhile we have to stay ubiquitous and document our work. And, hopefully, in the process, we'll catch the critics and general jazz public up to speed.

In closing, congratulations Mr. Shorter. Well-deserved!

78th Annual Reader's Polls (Soprano Saxophone Category)

WAYNE SHORTER (3,501 votes)

Branford Marsalis (1,872 votes)

Dave Liebman (1,167 votes)

Joshua Redman (879 votes)

Chris Potter  (874 votes)

Kenny    Garrett (735 votes)

Ravi Coltrane (684 votes)

Anat Cohen (657 votes)

Joe Lovano (611 votes)

Steve Wilson (498 votes)

Evan Parker (408 votes)

Jimmy Greene (396 votes)

Jane Ira Bloom (384 votes)

Lee Konitz (372 votes)

James Carter (369 votes)

Roscoe Mitchell (297 votes)

Sam Newsome (288 votes)

Jane Bunnett (255 votes)

Donny McCaslin (222 votes)

Tony Malaby (210 votes)

Jazz Improvisation 101: A Two-Sided Coin

In order to be more effective at improvising, one needs to draw information from two primary sources.  The first being theory (scales and chords) ; the second being language (licks, patterns, and standard jazz vocabularies).

As a teacher, I found that theory is by far the easier of the two to teach. Theory, unlike language, follows a specific set of rules. And once you understand the vertical and linear relationships,  you can cognitively understand how to put it together.

Language on the other hand is a bit more complex. One, it's not as easily codified. There are  many languages which have evolved from the many styles of jazz, and there many interpreters who have created these different languages. In addition to the innumerable note to rhythm combinations, language can only mastered through the experience gained from years of playing, imitating and listening to others who have mastered the particular vernacular you're trying to perform.

As a jazz student, it's important to remember that just because you got an "A" in  Jazz Improvisation 101, you could still, however, lack the performance skills needed to be an effective improviser. It it for this reason that I always stress that you take the necessary steps to complete the other half of this puzzle--which is learning the language on which the theory is based and honing that language through playing.

What you can learn from a book in the classroom has it's limitations, whereas, the possibilities of what can be learned on the bandstand are limitless.

A Listening Guide to Understanding Wayne Shorter

Creating listening guides to follow for while you're listening to music is a great way to develop a "big picture" understanding of what's going on during a musical performance. 

As musicians, we sometimes get so bogged down with the notes that are played, that we fail to see how they actually function in the larger context of the music. Listening guides give us a second to second account of the musical activity of the piece, highlighting not only the important moments that propel the music forward, but the various performance practices used to create these moments.

Here's one I created from a duo performance by saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassist Esperanza Spaulding playing "Footprints" on the Tavis Smiley show.

LISTENING GUIDE: 

Wayne Shorter & Esperanza Spalding - "Footprints" from the Tavis Smiley Show.

FIRST CHORUS

:

0:33 - Shorter begins the melody, unaccompanied, soon joined by Esperanza in the 3rd measure.

SECOND CHORUS

0:55 - Shorter plays the melody for the 2^nd chorus, embellishing it at the end of the second bar, using one of his common techniques of playing the phrase an octave higher. This is a very effective way of giving the listener one of those unexpected twists and turns.

THIRD CHORUS

1:19 - When the top of the third chorus begins, Shorter doesn’t begin his improvised solo right away. He pauses for one measure, giving the music a chance to breath, creating tension from the anticipation of what he’s about to play next. At first, it seems insignificant, but this is one of those subtle things that separate “hot shots” from master storytellers. Often times our real genius comes not from what we play, but what we don’t play.

1:37 - Shorter quotes the melody for the last two bars of the chorus, which also may seem insignificant at first.  But again, this is one of those subtle things that Shorter does which gives his solos clarity. Having different parts of the melody reoccur during your improvised solo provides depth and a sense of purpose for the other things that you've played.

FOURTH CHORUS

1:42 - Shorter begins his third chorus playing the melody for the first measure and then uses the rhythm from the melody as the basis for his improvisation for measures 2, 3, and 4.

1:55 - Again, he quotes the melody in measure 9.

FIFTH CHORUS

2:03 - He starts off his solo with a rhythmic motif that he develops until he gets to measure 9, after which he plays one of his signature phrases that descend in whole steps.

SIXTH CHORUS

2:25 - He begins the chorus with a new rhythmic motif, only this time phrasing it in 4/4 time against the 6/4 time.

SEVENTH CHORUS

2:48 – He plays the melody out, phrasing it again in 4/4 time, which Esperanza quickly picks up on.

3:07 – Beginning in the 11^th measure he plays a rhythmic pattern, two against six, which he continues until they fade at the end.

Sam Newsome - Ethan Iverson Duo (Live @ Michiko Studios)