Waiting @ LAX to fly to Alaska

We're waiting at LAX to fly to Alaska...

We're waiting at LAX to fly to Alaska. Everyone's Skyping home. One of the hardest thing about touring is of course missing my family, Ailed and Saúl. But Skype is a great invention. I get to see and interact with them whenever I have WiFi, which in the States is almost always!

I am taking the time to work on my new site with the maker. I love the site, great design and slick functionality. We just have to work out the glitches.

In the mean time I am studying for the Netherlands Music Prize Award ceremony on November 14th. Be there!

Well, off to fly.

On tour with the Amstel Quartet, 2

Quite an intensive day today. No playing though, well, no concerts. Today was our shopping day, Dutch style: Only looking, not buying. In the morning we rehearsed, then we went to several music shops. First to buy a new case for me. My old case was falling apart, and since it is holding an instrument I had been looking for for 12 years, I figured it was a good idea to invest in a new case, which I found in, of all places, Los Angeles. After, we went to the Guitar Centre and Mesa Boogie on Sunset to try out guitar effects. One of our next projects will involve electronics, pedals that guitarists use to change their sound. We want to use them to add color to the saxophone quartet to make it sound like an organ. We found some great effects and sounds and by next year we should have an effective electronic set up for all four of us.

We had a late lunch in a Mexican restaurant across the Guitar Centre (what a horrible shop!) and met a fellow saxophonist, Doug Webb. He hooked us up with several interesting saxophone and sax accessories creators: Oleg and International Woodwind. Oleg was quite a character. I knew some of his products from shops in the Netherlands but today I got to know the person and his philosophy. Oleg believes that all the saxes we play in the quartet are essentially in tune. The neck however determines whether this comes out or not, in combination with the Oleg ligature (the thing that holds the reed on the mouthpiece). His opinion on the matter was very strong. We got a free saxophone lesson at the same time! Oleg says you should be able to play the saxophone without manipulating the intonation. The saxophone should do the work. While we were like most of us, raised with the knowledge that all saxes are out of tune and that we should fix it with fingerings and embouchure. For Oleg, this should be unnecessary, With his neck and ligature and a completely relaxed embouchure everything should work fine. I wish we had more people like Oleg working in our business. In the end I was not specifically attracted to his products, but the man had a great passion and vision.
I have noticed that the saxophone business is an amateur business. Selmer for example, makes good saxophones for a reasonable price. But professionals just want a good instrument. Clarinets, flutes, bassoons, they all cost a lot more than a saxophone. As a saxophonist, I also want quality, consistency and perhaps a bit of innovation. I think saxophones can be better; ease of playing, better intonation, smoother legato, etcetera.
But while I am writing this down, I realize that I might be looking for the Holy Grail: Something that I will never find, but that I will always keep looking for. I own great saxophones. Horns that I selected from a tens of saxophones at the time. I looked for 12 years to find my baritone saxophone. And I am always on the lookout for saxophones that I like better. And it is also because of the relatively low price that I don't have to think twice to buy an instrument I really like.

On tour with the Amstel Quartet

Tours with the Amstel Quartet are the times I relax most during my professional flow throughout the year. A lot of my best ideas are born during tours: CD concepts, concert programs and musical ideas for example. The only things I do on tour is playing, driving, eating, sleeping, meditating, emailing, planning the rest of the period and relaxing. At home I run from here to there, trying to keep up with things. Everyone knows I am on tour and that gives me freedom.

Tours with the Amstel Quartet are the times I relax most during my professional flow throughout the year. A lot of my best ideas are born during tours: CD concepts, concert programs and musical ideas for example. The only things I do on tour is playing, driving, eating, sleeping, meditating, emailing, planning the rest of the period and relaxing. At home I run from here to there, trying to keep up with things. Everyone knows I am on tour and that gives me freedom.
The most obvious thing we learn on tour is that we get the chance to develop our musicality in a spontaneous way combined with a singular flow. In the beginning of the tour we rehearse a lot, but after some concerts we get in the - what we call - the tour flow. We have the music down and things start happening spontaneously. We don't know how it happens and we cannot predict it. It's actually quite magical. Back home we all have our own lives and our own flow. We do gigs, teach, manage our careers, but on the road we can forget most of this.
The tour flow works starts when we are already on the road for about a week. We each do our own things during the day and we drive to the venue. We warm up in the hall and relax before the concert starts. We do our thing on stage and don't discuss it so much anymore. We accept whatever comes out (up to a certain extent), grab some dinner and get back to the hotel. During the concerts we are so loose and especially trusting, that a lot happens. Mistakes too, of course. But other things as well. When we worked with one of our favorite musical theater directors, Henk Schut, he told us about the 'fifth man'. When we play, there is another person created. The quartet is not the sum of its parts but a whole new personality. Everything we do is aimed towards that person. In fact, he is the Amstel Quartet. During tours, the fifth man's personality is developed to a different level. And we take him home to the Netherlands. The funny thing is, the fifth man takes decision that maybe none of us would take as a solo musician, or even suggest or approve during a rehearsal. But during the tour flow he doesn't mind us too much, he goes his own way.
Yesterday a student during a masterclass asked us how we keep a quartet together. That was a very good question. Sometimes we don't even know ourselves. I told him there are two main difficulties you have to keep into account:
-How much does each of the members want to play together and what choices is everyone prepared to make? During school it is relatively easy. All the quartet members are into music 100% and prepared to go all the way for it. But after school it is a different story. Each gets his own life. How do you deal with that? We chose to keep living in Amsterdam to be able to find rehearsal time. How much do you want to play together? How do you deal with each other's choices? Those are all things yo need to get straight. Talk about it. And take decisions.
-The other thing is, how do you deal with one another for days in a week, every day in a tour, differences of opinion during rehearsals, about music, planning, choices, etc.? The fifth man of course is very important. But respect, trust and acceptance are also keywords in keeping a quartet together with everyone feeling happy.
This student also asked us why we like to play quartet so much. It is because of the medium itself - it just sounds great, the repertoire freedom - we develop our own personal repertoire, and the simple fact that you have more fun with four than by yourself - also because we share responsibility, musically, careerwhise, etc. For example, if I don't feel 100% during a concert, the other guys will notice this and compensate for me. We cover for each other. It's a great system!