Jazz improvisation performance. You’ve been preparing. You have mastered your instrument with long tones, scales, and exercises. You have worked on general knowledge of music theory, chords, and the relationship between them. Now what?

During a trip to Manhattan last winter (Jan 2016 or so) I heard some buskers in Union Square station making sounds that were at once familiar and new.

My Saxophone is back from the workshop of Emilio Lyons.  It is a pleasure to play on it.  I would say “like new” but for two things.  First, the horn was twenty years old when I got it, so I never played it new.  Second, Emilio has customized the feel of the horn enough that o suspect it never played like this.  What did he do?

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