My mouthpiece/reed setups have been on the heavier side for a while, and after several performances with the Crius Saxophone Quartet, and working on transcriptions, I realised that I wanted a little more flexibility in my setup.
Gonzalez Reeds sent me a few boxes of their Malbec reeds for tenor, and alto saxophones, which played slightly softer than my usual Jazz Local #627 reeds, and in the practice room they were awesome! I found the flexibility that I was looking for – a little more shimmer in the top register, and a clearer sound in the bottom end.
I was excited to test them out on a gig.
But they didn’t feel great on the gig – I went back to my harder reeds. I felt like I couldn’t control the softer reeds. The reeds felt mushy, and I was searching for the tuning constantly.
A few weeks later, I started working on a Joel Frahm transcription, and once again, I wanted a little more flexibility. So I tried the Malbec again, and started to figure them out – the sound started to open up, and I was finding the sweet spot for response.
As I have moved to softer reeds across each of my saxophones over the last few months, I am loving the results. For years, I feel like I have been expending extra energy in just creating the sound, and now, I am able to focus on more musical things.
It has definitely been a change that was worth making, even if it took a while to get comfortable.