Advanced Jazz Saxophone Duets

Duet playing is an essential and enriching experience for musicians in their developmental journey. It serves as a stepping stone towards ensemble playing, offering a multitude of benefits to the aspiring student.

Engaging in duet playing allows musicians to cultivate various crucial skills, such as honing their pitch, rhythm, articulation, dynamics, and tone color. Simultaneously, it fosters their ability to actively listen and adapt to their partner's performance when necessary.

Among the myriad of skills a musician must acquire to be successful, the ability to simultaneously hear themselves and others is undoubtedly one of the most vital.

Duet playing provides a unique opportunity to develop this skill, challenging the musicians to create musically harmonious and synchronised performances.

Advanced Saxophone Duets VOLUME 1  (Digital Download) for Performers is an exciting collection of 8 Original Duets, (29 pages) which has been is meticulously crafted to cater to the discerning saxophonist seeking exhilarating material tailored for captivating live performances.

Immerse yourself in the dynamic world of Jazz as you explore a plethora of styles, including Mainstream, Funk, Bebop, Blues, Dixie, and Brazilian.

Each piece is thoughtfully designed to push your boundaries, featuring introductions, codas, and modulations that elevate the overall musical experience. Moreover, these compositions boast written solos, brimming with authentic Jazz language, igniting both interest and challenge in equal measure.

Suitable for Advanced players yearning for a complete immersion in the Jazz idiom, these duets offer a transformative experience.Delve deeper into the heart of Jazz as nearly every duet pays homage to legendary Jazz composers and improvisers, effortlessly enriching the pieces while simultaneously preserving and disseminating the timeless legacy of the Jazz continuum.

 Instrumentation - 2 Saxophones

1. Bourbon Street Blues in the key of A features a solo brimming with elegant Blues tinged phrases reminiscent of Johnny Hodges to whom it is dedicated. The ‘head out’ is developed further with a modulation up a semitone to Bb and adds rhythmic and harmonic complexity (2.20)

2. Tuxedo - this is a "standard" like AABA straight ahead swing tune with a solo based on the harmony of  'I can't believe you are in love with me'

3. Blue Tones - This is a Mccoy Tyner influenced blues with a challenging solo section that includes modulations.

4. Choro 9- This is a Brazilian Chorinho that is full of chromatic of Jazz language and approach notes (for Soprano and Alto)

5. Dood- This is a Funky 16th note work out in E dorian

6. Ramblin Blues is dedicated to the grandfather of jazz - Duke Ellington, composer of such classics as Take the A Train, Mood Indigo and Satin Doll. It starts in F major, modulating to F# in the solo and heads out in G major - adding colour and tension (2.25)

7. Farrago- (bundled) 5/4 workout!

8. Memphis Blues in honour of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane with reference to the Crescent album (1.58)

"Advanced Duets for performers Duets are challenging, very musical and demonstrate a deep understanding of the Blues & Jazz vocabulary. There is plenty of stylistic language that can be gleaned from these duet studies. Extended range, chromaticism, rhythmic interplay and well conceived independent contrapuntal parts present some good technical and musical challenges for the players"

Greg Heath - B.A. A.D.J.S.

Saxophonist, Composer, Arranger, Educator