New beginnings!
Almost exactly to the date, 30 years ago today, I traveled to New York with one goal in mind - to buy myself a new saxophone. Up until then I've played a "Dolnet" tenor sax which I inherited from my grandfather. It was on that very instrument which I learned to play the saxophone, and it stayed with me all through Berklee College of Music. I was repeatedly told by my teacher at the time; George Garzone, that I should consider getting a better, more professional horn. For reasons I can't remember now, it took me almost a year after I graduated to get myself to New York to look for a saxophone. A Mark VI no less. That was the horn to play, and everybody who meant anything in the jazz world played one - so why shouldn't I have one? The lineage from the original greats like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane to Branford Marsalis and Michael Brecker is as impressive as it is long, and in the saxophone community, the Selmer Mark VI is the holy grail for most players. Durin...
