Sharp Eleven Music

💔Heartbreak/mouthpiecebreak... Less than a week after my final Desmond hypothesis featuring the completion of the full vintage Paul Desmond original setup, disaster struck.

I accidently dropped my M.C. Gregory A4 Hollywood. It dropped it on a carpet and this had happened before so when I picked it up it looked pretty ok but when playing something was off. It didn't respond that well and checking in the evening light combined with that the tip rail seemed smooth and I was trying a new reed I left it hoping it was ok. But the next day it still responded worse than I remembered and with daylight inspection I saw the crack.

Of all the mouthpieces I own, this was the only mouthpiece that it really didn't have to happen to as it's so rare to find... In the picture, you can see it cracked and has a slice completely off, only kept in place by the mouthpiece patch.

If someone has one or knows someone who has an MC Gregory, you can contact me. I will try to get it repaired and it will be in great hands when I'll send it to Erik Greiffenhagen who will repair it. Yes, the man behind the Dry Martini at Morgan. But sending stuff from Europe overseas is a challenge, as the national post office pauzed all shipments due to tarrif chaos. There are other options to send but they have at best severe warnings.

If you want the last recorded results of the MC Gregory with a Selmer SBA and Rico reed combination, you can check out my review video form last week (it's at the very start of the video and towards the end a sample of Emily).

Here is that link: https://youtu.be/njUqX0xszBw

Or the first full Desmond tunes trio session on it: https://youtu.be/04F9A9419zs

Was hyped to test it on my Sharp Eleven Electric Band repertoire to see how the vintage breeze would work, but that will have to be delayed for... well, let's hope it's only a delay.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 39

Sharp Eleven Music

Do you have good suggestions for a Transcribing software/app on smartphone? Something similar as the "Transcribe!" software would be ideal, where you can loop or pinpoint a line exactly and which has a digital keyboard or something for reference.

Leaving on vacation to Italy soon and want to transcribe a few lines by the pool. Not bringing a laptop but need to get down some lines that keep circling in my head.

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2 months ago | [YT] | 27

Sharp Eleven Music

Did you realize that the "Mission Impossible" theme song has a rhythmic pattern that is inspired by Morse code for the letters "M" and "I"? The two long notes followed by two short notes ( C -- C Eb - F) or (dah dah di di) represent the Morse code for "M" and "I", respectively, which are the initials of the title.


Composer Lalo Schifrin used this as a starting point for the theme's distinctive rhythm. He definitely liekd his Martini shaken, not stirred.

R.I.P. Mr. Schifrin.

2 months ago | [YT] | 78

Sharp Eleven Music

Great video by Nick from Jazzduets. Not only a great skill for improv, but also a super skill (which is fun to develop) for eartraining and musical awareness. Check it out!

2 months ago | [YT] | 3

Sharp Eleven Music

Do you use Youtube as a serious practicing tool?



If yes, in what way or which features? If no, what's your most used software? Put it in the comments.

2 months ago | [YT] | 11

Sharp Eleven Music

100k SUBSCRIBERS, wowza! Thank You!

I wish we would be counting down towards Milestones properly with Just Two of Us (Miles and Grover would have loved that too)) like your hippest Youtubers, but instead I (Jorre typing this) was driving through a sea behind Amsterdam towards Enkhuizen 🇳🇱 for a concert with Along Comes Mary band on water and Timothy was getting his hands dirty with his wife... on house renovation.

No video making, no transcribing, no Youtube glory. Just plain old dirty blues licks in all keys and getting grey hair from drilling.

1. First picture is where we just arrived and Rob shot a nice picture of the milestone on my phone.

2. The setup after soundcheck, later around 25 little boats arrived with people to watch the concert

3. That was the actual view where we hit the 100k, driving 20 miles on a road specifically build in the sea from Lelystad to Enkhuizen (The Dutch know a thing or two about how to tame the sea!). The picture doesn't capture remotely how amazing that looked in real life.

4. Timothy with somehow isolation material from a New Orleans traditional song in the background. (check out "Iko Iko" by for example Dr John)

5.Sandra, Timothy's wife, cleaning a wall. Or making it more dirty. Or cleaning it... Making it different at least.

We'll try to make a random shout out video. You can ask us anything or insult or beards or whatever you feel like doing in the comment section! Go nutsss

Jorre & Timothy

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3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 72

Sharp Eleven Music

For the Desmond enthousiast having asked me to compare the MC Gregory and Morgan Dry Martini...

after years of multiple mouthpiece tests I will come with one final conclusion video soon. I'll give you an honest opinion and comparison between both. But I wanted to give an heads up on some of the mouthpieces I tried out for a Desmond-like sound earlier on like the JodyJazz HR* Custom Dark, Syos (almost) Smoky and their replica of the MC Gregory, and an old Selmer Soloist D I found randomly in my dads drawer.

Although I tried a few more, these in the picture is the final lineup I'll adress because I think that all of these have an interesting element to them. I need a bit more time to try combinations as I'm finding some of these matching very well to slightly different players than Desmond. I'm sorry it takes so long. I'll try to get this video out before the summer.

“I have won several prizes as the world's slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 for quietness.” - Paul Desmond

Well, I could have won several prizes as the slowest Youtuber, as well as a special award in 2025 for
procrastination.

That paying tribute to Desmond is starting to get out of hand.

P.s. If you have concrete questions regarding these mouthpieces, please let me know in the comments and I will try to address them somewhere next century.

/Jorre

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3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 39

Sharp Eleven Music

We're ALMOST at 100k susbcribers... So, just wondering, is there something we've ever posted that stuck with you?

Perhaps a solo or new player that you discovered, a solo transcription you've worked on for long, a tutorial you've got something out of and now you know what NOT to play, random sax solis and LICC parodies for millenials, ...

Just asking for a friend... And perhaps looking for some input to respond to in a 100k thank you video with the both of us. If you have an idea of your own, you can also make disrespectful proposals like playing Michael Brecker backwards on handflute while tapdancing. Or something of the kind.

Best,

Jorre & Timothy

3 months ago | [YT] | 35

Sharp Eleven Music

What's to you the most fun part of improvising/soloing?

3 months ago | [YT] | 18

Sharp Eleven Music

Is there a lick or line you absolutely LOVE but you can't put your finger on what it is that makes your heart move faster about it?

In this case, we're talking about when you've already figured out the notes and how to play it, but you just can't work out the mechanics about why it sounds so great.

We want to do a video in the near future trying to answer these and help you out with some jazz mysteries.


To be clear: this is not an open call to just reference lick you like and have us transcribe that. You provide us with a (snippet of a) transcription and a clear audio reference i.e. Chick Corea - Spain (album: Light As A Feather) timestamp 2:45 - 2:52 . You can also use a lick form one of our videos of course! No need to send the sheet music in that case, we still have that... I think.

If you have one for us, you can send that to info@sharpelevenmusic.com , but please, share it also in the comments so that people get some inspiration already and can look it up themselves, that will be fun!

Any questions, let us know in the comments as well!

5 months ago | [YT] | 26