He's incredible! It would be interesting to see what kind of training routine he might use to be able to do this. The run across the stage and no noticeable loss of tone. Holy cow! Hope this kid entertains us for years to come. I've never seen anything quite like this. He's like an elite athlete but with a barry sax.
To say nothing of coming from sea level (NYC) and doing it at 6,500' altitude. I saw him/them play at The Fillmore in Denver and he never stopped dancing and playing. A solid 90 minute set.
Yup! Crazy, eh? That's called Altissimo. Used to play back in the day. It's not fun attempting to play so high, you don't have a standardized way to hit the note. It can be rather difficult. To do it, it's all embouchure (the "seal" around the mouthpiece)and the position and control of his jaw and muscles in the mouth. That, and a good ear. Playing classical we had to learn to do it for a few select songs and in jazz band, but Leo here is damn good at it and very practiced. That's how he can hit notes that aren't standard on a bari sax and play ridiculously high. He also frequently uses other techniques like "growling" where you basically hum while you play and it gives it a gravely sort of tone. Yes, it's hard to move that much and sound decent. I kinda wanna dust off my instrument now after talking about it. : |
One of the coolest things about 1:00 is you can hear Leo’s sax and his sax on the speakers at the same time with very little delay in between, gives me chills.
Kevin, I noticed that, too. Gave it such a rich, full rounded out sound, and also let some of the “growl” shine through. I was lucky enough to catch Phish play there, two nights back in 1995. Knowing how much of a special venue it is, it was cool to see him appreciate it, and soak it all in, running around all the rows of people. If his playing doesn’t elicit a smile from people, then they are dead inside.
I've seen him live in Montreal Jazz Festival. It was 35 Celsius 42 with humidity, I was sweating balls just by standing still and this man, this LEGEND, was on stage going nuts.
As always, Leo, you kill it with your footwork and moves that go perfectly well with your playing style. You nail that little thing called, "stage presence". Kudos, dude, kudos.
I follow Leo since Lucky Chops. I admire him, he has so good technique and style. Neverthless I loud like to listen to him playing jazz, or at least, see how fast his head goes in the art of improvisation, and how much creative he is. He uses a lot the basic pentatonic scale. This is not a critic. Its a challenge. He is so talented that I think he could do something different
Leo is one of if not the best berie sax players of all time I’ve been playing berie for a while and I struggle to get to some of the note he can get to he played a contrabass sax and it was great
Bari* and yeah it just takes loads of practice and I’ve been playing two years and I can get all the regular register and some altissimo notes out. Just keep on pushing and practicing.
