This is off of a cassette recording from off the radio, ca. 1985. Please excuse the wow, flutter, etc.!

Regular Boys - KISS FM Detroit Interview

This is off of a 2nd-hand cassette duplicate of a demo tape, ca. 1985. Please excuse the wow and flutter!

Regular Boys - Hard to Handle w/James Gomulka, drums

Regular Boys - If I could Turn Back the Hands of Time w/James Gomulka, drums

Regular Boys - Midnight Hour w/James Gomulka, drums

Regular Boys - 25 Miles w/James Gomulka, drums

S80 “F” touched up by Jimmy Jensen. The reed is an OLD Rico (Brown Box) “V - 3 1/2”. These are incredible reeds, although this one has been played a LOT, and thus feels fairly soft on this piece, which I believe to be about 0.055” at the tip. Thus, it doesn’t speak perfectly on the high notes, and it is rather “Bechet” (sans the crazy vibrato-:) in the low end. Excuse the cheesy chinky-dinky-dinky drum track on iRealB. I can’t afford a real rhythm section.

231203S Bye-Bye Bluebird

S80, Vandoren Blue Box No. 3
Take 2 of Confirmation goes better… up-tempo. I settled on traditional Vandoren reeds with this S80 mouthpiece. This one is a no. 3 that I did some woodworking on.

231203S Confirmation, ATTYA, Indiana

C Train Off The Rails

Theo Takes The C Train

Conn “New Wonder”, series II
Mouthpiece is an older Selmer S80 “F” but Jimmy Jensen made it more like between a current-production C** and D facing, but a bit longer. I’ll call it a C***.
Gonzalez no. 2 3/4 reed
Track Listing:
1. A Nut in Every Car
2. There’s No You
3. Set the Controls for the Sea of Tranquility
4. Bitter Enemies
5. Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Girl With Emphysema
7. Shag-a de Saw-daddy

No Wonder

Florida Otto Link "No USA" original 4* facing that Jimmy Jensen cleaned up for me. I like the big sound - classic Link sound! I have to credit the great George Coleman, from whom I copped a lot of ideas while learning this tune. I should have kept this Link! But that goes for many other Links I've had... including the one a bum name of “Don Minor” stole from me in Detroit, ca. 1982.

7 Steps FL STM 4* Aug5 (2014 I think)

Link Tone Edge made by Eric Greiffenhagen for Jerry Bergonzi. 0.110" tip opening. I guess Eric made a bunch of these for Gonz from some special blanks. Rigotti 2 1/2 “Strong” reed. Apologies for the shabby basement acoustics and iPad mic setup. Thanks for listening.

170713T B&S Jerry Bergonzi Tone Edge 8 Rigotti 2.5+

This is a lot of tracks of me tracking various aspects of my playing… development, technical aspects, and some technical troubleshooting… various mouthpieces, reeds, etc. … various horns; tenor and soprano. I may put some clarinet stuff on here eventually.
I play a lot with these same old Jamey Aebersold recordings. Yes, I know… it gets old very quickly… same tempi, same chord voicings… over and over. Here's the thing: It ain't easy finding a rhythm section around here that can play. Although they may change things up, vary the tempi, styles, beats,… if they can't play, they bring out the worst in me. Guys like Grady Tate, Kenny Barron, and Rufus Reid bring out my best, and even though it pales against the background of their playing, they inspire some ideas.
Also, that iRealB thing has more tunes but really lame chord voicings and cornball rhythms. So as time goes on, I’m reharmonizing a lot of tunes in that app and losing the chinky-dinky drums more often than not. I’ll take rim shots on two and four over all that.

Theotis Gomulka

Popular tracks