Here are several recent videos from my quartet performance at Ithaca College, along with pianist John Stetch, bassist Nicholas Walker, and drummer Tom Killian:
If you would like to listen to more of my music, please click on the MP3 button to the left.
May 1st, 2007:
The CD Semprini
by the Mike Titlebaum Group is now available
on the iTunes music store. This CD from 1993 features Gary Versace on piano,
Matt Houston on drums, Cory Combs on Bass, and Chris Jentsch on guitar:
Back in college at the Eastman School of Music, I made a movie for my film scoring class. "A Room With a Blues" was shot onto 8mm film by Jeremy Sarachan. Dave Dusman was the sound engineer;
he and I recorded all the sound effects and music in post-production. The musicians on the soundtrack are me, John Sneider (trumpet), Russell Schmidt (piano),
Cory Combs (bass), and Matt Houston (drums):
I have apparently been "challenged" by my old friend
Jason Robert Brown to
put up a link to a historical performance of his ubiquitous song "You're Ugly And Your Mother Dresses
You Funny" on my website. Perhaps Mr. Brown thought that the Soviet-era "mutual assured destruction"
principle would apply; in other words, since we all have really embarrassing 1989-era hairdos,
this tape would serve as blackmail material for any of us involved, and I wouldn't actually do it.
However, since I really have no shame when it comes to things like this, here is a 7-minute clip
from the 1989 performance of the "Eastman Chamber Rock Ensemble" (the oversized
band that Jason founded while we were in school) featuring "You're Ugly And...". You
asked for it, buddy:
And yes, I have the rest of the show, too...
I was recently asked about my "setup" from a website visitor. Alan writes:
I really liked your sound on Darn that Dream. Especially you ability to
play softly and seemingly effortlessly. Mind if I ask what kind of horn
you played and mpc/reed? I'm currently trying to tame a '77 yani and as a
beginner don't know how much of my problem is my setup (meyer5/ vandoren
2.5 reed). (The horn is leak free but I think maybe the octave key lifts
too high since the midde d and eb are extremely stuffy unless I let up on
it. I'm sure its mostly lack of chops).
... and here's my reply:
Thank you for your kind words. It’s funny --- I tend to dwell more on the
opposite problem: projecting loud at the same time as keeping a good sound.
But if I remember back to my time as a beginner, I do remember wanting to have
more control over my soft playing.
I’m always reluctant to tell other players my mouthpiece/reed setup, because
I’m really not a "mouthpiece/reed" kinda guy. I’m the kind of player who finds
a comfortable, decent setup, then keeps with it for 20 years. My mindset is
this: I look for the setup that most easily allows me to sound like me.
When I first bought my tenor sax, I needed to get a mouthpiece (I’d not really
played much tenor until I left college). After I bought a nice horn, I did a
blindfold mouthpiece test for the guys at my local repair shop. They gave me
about 6 mouthpieces to try: Some metal, some hard rubber, all with totally
different facings/tip openings, baffles, etc. They literally could not tell
one apart from the other. Internally, I was adjusting the way I was playing to
the different setups so that I would sound like me. I would “darken” the
brighter mouthpieces, and "brighten" the darker ones.
The lesson I learned from this is to find the mouthpiece that plays the
easiest. In other words, I should seek to find a setup where I have to do the
least amount of internal adjustment to sound like me. The funny part is that I
NEVER thought I would enjoy playing a metal mouthpiece, but the metal Otto Link
was the one I bought that day, because it was the easiest to make "sound like
me".
All that being said, here’s what I play: All my horns are Selmer Mark VI ---
soprano, alto and tenor. On the recording of "Darn That Dream", I’m playing an
Otto Link 8 "Tone Edge" hard rubber (plastic?) mouthpiece on soprano. I do
play a Meyer 6M on alto that was given to me by my friend and wonderful jazz
guitarist Bob Sneider when he decided to stop playing sax and focus on guitar.
On tenor, I play a metal Otto Link 7* "Super" Tone Master. When I used to play
a lot of "classical" alto, I played a Larry Teal mouthpiece regularly.
Reeds are more various. For jazz, I’ll usually play Rico Royal 3-1/2 or 3.
For classical playing I use VanDoren. There was a time in college when I
played VanDoren reeds for jazz, too, although they needed more prep time &
sandpapering down to get them playable for jazz. But they have a warm sound I
like.
I hope that helps. Please feel free to send me some recordings of your
playing. I’d enjoy hearing them.
