12 Moons Solo Saxophone Improvisation Day 18

Date: 01/18/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Edmonds, WA house

Notes:

Over the past two days the fog has sat still in the air throughout the puget sound. On my end of Whidbey Island the visibility has remained at no more than 30 or 40 yards this entire time. A melancholic mood has seeped its way into me these past two days, and my improvisation today reflects this.

I focused on creating a bluesy, two tone motive with a continuous rhythm. I love repetition, and the blues is the best place to find it. The fingerings used to create the pitches are based on two fingerings: the tenor low C# played as an overtone for the first pitch, and then continuing his fingering while opening the side C key for the second. Each fingering has a complimentary physical feeling as I play, making the two very fluid to play when put against one another. Throughout this improvisation I explore the overtone series on these two fingerings to create clusters of pitches and smears from one overtone to the next above or below it.

-Neil