sustaining that note

So - last Saturday I drove down to Shoreham at 8 in the morning to see the lovely Evelyn for my saxophone lesson.  I was excited at the prospect of learning a new jazz piece.  But what we focused on was B flat. 

Eh? I hear you ask.  Well she wanted me to play a perfect bottom B flat.  It's a low note - like deep base.  Starting it clearly and finishing it with no deterioration in the sound quality is dead difficult.  Even for real talent like mine.  You start by playing the low G, and work down from there.  And you do it for about ten minutes.  And if you do it lots, it makes a real difference....

....as you would discover if you listened to Paul Desmond playing 'Suicide is Painless' (the MASH song) on Youtube.  On paper it's quite an easy piece - not that many notes.  When you listen to the piece closely (it's the one with the black and white silhouette), he brings incredible colour to each note.  How on earth can he produce so much variety, I ask myself.

And the answer I can see so clearly....?  Focusing on B flat. 

Behind the uber cool playing of the late Paul Desmond must lie years of playing one note over and over again, trying to get it clean and bright (oops, didn't mean to reference Sound of Music) and varied.  Listen to Courtney Pine and once again, you see the incredible colour he can bring to single notes.

So we know what he, too, has been up to.