I just got home from a month long tour with Tom Misch. For those that don’t know, he’s a multi-instrumentalist and singer from the U.K. He’s released a few beat tapes and EPs and just dropped his debut album Geography. It’s fire! So I was asked to join only a couple weeks before and I was ecstatic about it when I got the call! I quickly checked out the music and before I knew it I’m on the west coast ready to start the national run. As soon as I arrive to the Warfield in San Francisco I realized just how large of a production was! There was a tour bus with 12 bunks, a trailer with a full lighting rig, multiple sound engineers and 5 killin musicians from London. Definitely a culture shock to say the least. We got through soundcheck and I got acquainted with the music and the chemistry with the band was immediately there!! I knew this tour would be ridiculously fun. The next show was Coachella and that was amazing!! I saw some of my favorite of all time perform. Daniel Caesar, Jorja Smith, Jamiroquai, and Beyoncé were definitely highlights for me! Such a dope hang! After Coachella it was smooth sailing. We drove the tour bus from Cali to Vegas, Colorado, Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York, Philly and DC!! Saw parts of North America I’ve never been to. We ended the tour with a Tiny Desk performance and a show in Dc! My parents even came through. Couldn’t have asked for a better ending to a fun ass tour! Such a blessing!

Special shoutout to Rudi Creswick on Bass, Joe Price on keys, Jamie Houghton on drums, Tobie Tripp on violin/guitar and of course Tom Misch on vocals/guitar!! Looking forward to the next one...

I”ve recently started a weekly series called Transcription Tuesdays and it is aimed to uphold tradition in this coming musical age of anything goes. Now don’t get me wrong I think it’s important make the music that you want to make BUT I think it’s at least important to be informed as much as possible about the history of the music you”re making. For that reason, I always strive to transcribe daily whether it is something as short as a lick or as long as a full album. This keeps my ears sharp, allows me to get more grounded in the music and also allow me to grow musically.

A little background on me and my start at transcribing!

I got my first private saxophone teacher pretty late in the game. I was 15 years old and my teachers Morgan Russell and Paul Carr always stressed the importance of studying the Omnibook (a collection of Charlie Parker solos written out) as well as the importance of listening/copying artists that I liked. This was always a major component of my lessons. Paul Carr would assign me a Cannonball Adderley solo (like “Minority”) to have written out and memorized for next week. This type of fast paced instruction pushed me to grow very quickly. In a couple years, I had gone fom a novice to playing in the All County, All State Bands and even national groups such The Grammy Band, Vail Jazz All Stars and YoungArts Fellows. I honestly believe this rapid development came not from mere running scales and arpeggios but from learning hundreds of solos and listening non-stop. I learned thousands of solos by ear during that time. I would sing them, play along with them on piano, and of course learn them on saxophone. When learning any language you have to emulate those that do it well and Jazz is no different. So to anyone reading this wondering how do I get better? Or feeling like they”ve hit a plateau. Trust me, there’s more to do and more to learn. Keep transcribing! There’s always someone better than you out there’s transcribe them! LOL