A. I was around music as long as I can remember. My father, Bob Alexander, was a very busy studio trombone player on the New York scene from the 1950's and I used to get to sit next to him in several of the big bands he played in. I can tell you that some of the stuff I heard from my vantage point in the trombone section used to make my hair stand on end!
He played lead on the Tonight Show when it was based in New York and gigged with Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, and a host of others, so I was always around musicians and got to learn what "hip" meant at a very early age.
I kind of messed around in high school with trombone, drums, keyboard, and bass, but didn't really study anything until I got "hit" with a kind of message that music should be my direction in life, and this took place after some extended listening to masters like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles, Wayne Shorter, etc. I started out playing saxophone at the ripe old age of 24 when I was attending California State University.
The amazing thing was that in a very short time I was able to hook up with some of my "heroes" and get a chance to hang out and study with them. One was Vel Selvan , who was a beautiful teacher and really helped get me going. A little after this, I met Mel Ellison in San Francisco and if there ever was an unsung but great tenor player, it is Mel. He had a very fresh and unique approach to the sax and just blew the minds of a lot of guys on that scene in the mid 70's.
I then moved on to Joe Henderson and Dave Liebman, and what else can I say about those two giants??? Some of the heaviest players in the Jazz legacy!
We all know about the great Joe Henderson and I was fortunate to get in some lesson time with him in the '70s. His music and approach to saxophone playing made a deep impression on me and obviously he has done a lot for the advancement of jazz music. When you hear Joe play a note for two seconds, you know it's JOE! And when you hear a number of saxophonists these days, take a listen for the "Joe" concept because his influence may well be apparent in their tone and lines.
I met Lieb at a gig he was playing when he lived on the West Coast. I walked up and introduced myself, and then laid an an Otto Link tenor mouthpiece on him that I had modified. He flipped out over it and then I became his "mouthpiece cat" for the next few years. I'll tell you, I heard him play some things that just rendered me speechless.....the kind of lines that seemed to the sandblast paint off of walls! Needless to say, I learned an awful lot from working with him and also about what it means to be a jazz musician and a human being. He is a true asset to the international saxophone "brotherhood" and we remain great friends to this day.
I moved to Japan in '82 and didn't do much playing in the first five years, but in '86, I decided to go back into it full bore, so I set up a serious woodshed schedule for myself. In the next year, I was lucky to meet Mike Ellis, a sax player who had moved to Tokyo from Paris. We just hit it off right away and shortly after put a sax quartet together which was soon followed by a quintet called META. META was a vehicle for Mike and my original compositions and it was a great band to play with--kind of like a laboratory where everyone was on their toes and always trying to "make it happen".
We got the chance to make a few CDs, play in the local clubs here in Tokyo, and do a little touring, TV, etc. I was also playing in a great funk band called Motherland, and some various other assorted jazz units (and a chance to gig with the wonderful Eddie Gomez).
Q. Did bad experiences with reeds lead you into the reed business?
A. Around this time I began to notice about how poorly the reeds I was using seemed to be performing. I remember a specific gig I was on in Nagoya where I had brought 5 or so boxes of a famous brand. I played through reed after reed until I had gone through all of them and not one really worked. It was unbelievable! Was the mouthpiece or horn messed up? Was it just me?
But I recall that I had been hearing the same comments from other sax players I knew on the scene, and I didn't remember having so much trouble even when I had been less experienced as a player. It was a serious drag for me to the point where I eventually decided, "Man, I can't go on like this...I've got to get something better".
This is where it really started and to this day, I can't believe how lucky I was not only to have made reeds for myself, but to have them produced and have other players tell me they worked for them, as well. And that's what has made it all worth it....all the great comments I've received.
It seems that there is a growing core of "true believers" out there and I feel continually grateful that in some way, these reeds may be helping them in their musical quest.
Q. Do you have any manufacturing background?
What I'm getting at is this; many of us can imagine the perfect
reed, but what did it take to actually sit down and design one,
and then manufacture and market them?
A.
No, I didn't really have much formal background in manufacturing
saxophone reeds. However, another manufacturing process
on a very different instrument has helped me enormously. It started
when I was going to NYU in 1970. I became very interested in pipe
organs and pipe organ music, especially that of the remarkable
French composer, Olivier Messiaen.
I received a dramatic introduction to what these organs were all about quite by chance. In early I970, I headed off to Grace Church in Manhattan for an organ concert I had heard about and found the doors of the church locked (wrong day!) . As I was about to turn around and leave, a guy came up to me off the street and said that the concert was planned for the following week and after a little conversation, he told me that he himself was the curator of the organ.
I let him know that I had a great interest in the musical and mechanical sides of pipe organs and he then kindly invited me into the church to check out their instrument. I went up a small ladder with him, and into room after room of pipes of all shapes and sizes. I had never seen anything like it....
Usually these rooms are hidden by the front showing pipes, so I didn't even know they existed. Then he went down and played a couple of Messiaen-like chords when I was still in one of the larger pipe chambers. Suddenly I was hit from all sides, as well as from above and below, by an array of hundreds of blasting pipes. When he hit the 16ft pedal Bombard (talk about sub contrabass sax!) the whole floor literally started shaking! It was a veritable wall of sound, and it just knocked me out.
I told the curator that I had to find out more what pipe organs were all about and I started my apprenticeship with him the next day. His name was Randy Gilberti and he was an excellent teacher. He now is the organ curator at the largest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere, St. John the Divine in New York City.
A division of pipes called "Reeds" are the ones whose tone is created by the beating of a curved brass reed against a flat brass mouthpiece called a "shallot". So what we have is basically a wooodwind mouthpiece in reverse, with the curve built into the reed which beats against this flat, brass "mouthpiece".
Great skill and intuitive sense are required to make these pipes and reeds. I remember spending many long hours in discussion with Randy and my next employer--the renowned organ restoration engineer Nelson Barden of Boston--about reeds, pipes, and other mechanical and design aspects of these magnificent instruments.
Nelson was a very patient and super generous teacher in sharing his vast knowledge with me and I know that some of the concepts I later developed were influenced by what I learned from both of these eminent organ specialists and I'll always be indebted to them for that.
Q. So you had some transferable skills when you started designing a saxophone reed?
A. I was influenced by some design concepts of pipe organs and also their tradition, as well: learn from the past and utilize present manufacturing methods. One skill I think I developed was one of listening to and analyzing tone and response. I literaly spent hundreds of hours trying to concentrate on the sounds these pipes made as they were being tuned and "voiced" by these craftsmen. Organ reeds are voiced by blow-testing and adjusting them in the process. It is the challenge of the pipe voicer to make these pipes speak well with a responsive, full tone and great aural focus and "feel" are required to achieve this.
A saxophone or clarinet reed's contour is based on a system of matrixed measurements, graphed out so that every area is precisely gauged at different points, from the tip and on back to the rear of the slope.
Several models of reed cuts from some time ago are in a generally similar range design wise, but it is the subtle differences that can make the reeds respond differently.
When we started with some model prototypes for Superial and "DC" we did extensive play testing. That's where the "feel" work begins, because you are trying to zero in to get a balance of as many positive characteristics as you can. Does the reed blow freely, with enough "body"? Does it have projection power, yet go down to pianissimo gracefully? How are the lows in relation to the highs? And does it have consistency throughout the registers?
There were many of these check points to consider. But actual playing of the prototypes points led to the direction I wanted to go in. In this way, I experimented with designs that might favor a darker or brighter harmonic spectrum, or larger projection without loss of any important tonal nuances, for example.
Q. So we're talking about compromise as a part of the design and manufacturing process?
A. Right. There is no "perfect" scientific system for a "perfect" reed, as far as I'm concerned. There are compromises to be made, but you have to try to "hone it in" as close as you can and believe me, that's a real challenge, especially considering all the different horn, mouthpiece, and ligature set ups out there. For our reeds, the final cut profiles came down to what I felt were tonal and response characteristics that would bring out the best in the mouthpiece and saxophone for the type of tonal palette I favor .
These were subjective decisions based in part on the kind of sound I hear in my head, coupled with the things I learned from my own playing experiences. And this sound is undoubtedly influenced in a major way by the playing of some great saxophonists who I love and have been listening to for years. Naturally, another key deciding factor was the way the reeds FELT when I played through them and this had a lot to do with the way they eventually turned out .
It's kind of like what Charlie Parker said "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn". I attempted to come up with reeds that really "play" and are "alive" with an inherent tonal quality built into them that kind of matches my idea of harmonic integrity and warmth.
Q. So you're in Japan, building a better mousetrap. Where do the French fit in?
A. It is the expertise of the people in France who I collaborated with in the designs that make our reeds what they are. I am indebted to them for that and their excellent work in manufacturing. They are real masters who carry on in the long, proud history of French reed making, and I have been most fortunate to be able to work with them.
Q. How about your raw materials? I've always wondered why French cane is better. Is the cane's cultivation the determining factor, or is the stock itself unique? Does the optimal climate exist only in that part of the world, or is there something in the soil found nowhere else?
A. Of course, the quality of cane used for making reeds is a major factor to be considered, because different cane makes reeds that respond and endure in markedly different ways.
As I mentioned, one reason I wanted to make Superial in the first place was because of the obvious decline in cane quality that I noticed around the mid 80's. Reeds I were playing at that time seemed to be missing something compared to the ones I had been using before. There was a noticeable fiber breakdown after a short time of playing, a higher percentage of pulp and the fibers seemed to be less developed and true. It all added up to an overall feeling of deadness and stuffiness.
One obvious thing I observed was how spongy the reeds had become....just take a look at the butt end of some reeds today and you'll see what I mean. There's just too much pulp in the cane.
After checking the reed tables
for flatness, I noticed another thing: most of them weren't flat!
So how could the reed and mouthpiece
table surfaces mate? Without that fundamental requirement, I knew
overall that no design feature could salvage a reed or make it
playable.
I had a discussion with Joe Henderson
about this and he said the reeds were getting so bad, he was thinking
of giving up playing for a while. Well, we're all
glad that didn't happen! Whether this was part in jest or
not, he made a point.
Part of the problem was nature. A
freeze in France in the mid 80's killed lot of premium cane. Land
prices shot up because of development, so less land being used
for this great cane. The larger reed makers were expanding so
rapidly that cane supplies, especially in the Var region, were
becoming depleted. So they looked abroad to begin new, more cost-effective
plantings. Now you find some reeds with the word "France"
stamped on the back when in reality they are only manufactured
in France from cane that is grown abroad. Much of
the cane used by the big manufacturers comes from other parts
of Europe, South America,etc. In my opinion, some of this other
material is just not as good as Var cane.
From the very beginning, I was convinced that the cane for my reeds had to be the best available. I and was lucky enough to locate my cane in the Var. Part of this is a traditional thing. From the late 1800's French, and notably Var cane, has enjoyed the reputation of being the finest grade cane in the world.
When I look through my collection of vintage DownBeat magazines, it's astounding to see just how many reed makers there were in the 30's and 40's-most of them extolling the virtues of French cane.
Now we get to the mysterious part....are there climate or soil differences that are unique to the Var region? From what I could find out, the answer to this would be yes.
The same variables are considered
in cultivation of wine grapes. Some of these grape seeds or plantings
are taken from the best areas of France and replanted in other
countries. Yet,
France still seems to retain its
title of being the best place for production of many types of
the finest wines, whose essence is captured from these excellent
grapes.
In a similar way, France--and particularly the Var region--seem to be ideal for growing the wild cane, "Arundo Donax" . The area from which our cane comes is close to the Mediterranean, generally warmer than some other growing places in France, and the amount of rainfall on the average seems to be just about right.
This warmer temperature gives our cane the advantage of being a little safer in the case of a freeze, although there are no guarantees. I always say a few prayers around February and March.
The soil where our cane grows is inundated with marble. You can see the remains of a once-active marble industry--abandoned quarries dot the nearby hills.
The way it was explained to me in France was that this marble in a broken down form manages to get into the cane, itself. Maybe this is one reason the reeds seem to endure so long.
Another thing that struck me is the color, smell, and taste of the reeds. I remember this from the good reeds I had used years ago. Superial's cane seemed to "feel" right and after hundreds of hours of play testing under all kinds of conditions, I think it's safe to say that the endurance and performance of the reeds owe a lot to this superb cane.
It is also worth mentioning that the crops do change slightly year to year...it's just impossible to maintain the exact same qualitites of cane, as we are all at the mercy of Mother Nature for a particular year, just as wine grape growers are. Some players might favor one year's cane to them next, but we know that for over100 years this cane has been coming from the same region and providing musicians with excellent material to work with. I also know that it's impossible to make every player happy...some might love the reeds one day and not the next. This is why I think some fine tuning should also be considered with the traditional tools...sandpaper, trimmer, and knife....a LOT can be done to make reeds work better and with not much effort. But we know we have a good base to work from and that's so important..
Of course the cut of the reed is also critical when the reed's endurance and tonal characteristics are considered. The trick is to match the best cane with the best cut you can design. We also consider the possibility of making very slight variations in cut year to year , if some of our top players require some adjustments
As far as the climate, I'll tell you one thing...it's gorgeous. A great place to have a delicious meal, a glass of fine wine, and to catch some sun....and to contemplate that beautiful wild cane!
Q. I'm really impressed with how your reeds are packaged. Maybe it's because I've done a lot of package design over the years. Your tins seem like they are integral, a part of the whole "reed thing" you're trying to express. It doesn't "feel" like you're just stuffing them into a box, but into this beautiful receptacle designed especially for them. It also makes your product feel like it's got a long and noble history that should be tapped into. Did you set out when your package was being designed with some of these things in mind?
A: Yes, definitely! I put a
lot of thought into the packaging and it took about a year to
make from conception to production. For the little "Alexander
Superial" logo (printed on the back of the reeds and the
front label of the tin) alone, my excellent long time emplyoee,
Mr.Shimamoto hand scripted it over 100 times before we felt it
was just right....
The packaging concept is like this:
I remember New York music stores! In the late 50's
and early 60's, I sometimes went to stores with my father like
Manny's, the famous shop in New York which was kind of a hub to
a line of wind shops near 46th-48th St. The minute you were
through the door, there was a large array of horns, reeds, mouthpieces,
etc. It was just stunning! And I remember how cool
everything looked...the way it was presented. In those days,
it was the TOTAL thing. The packaging was a reflection of the
quality and pride of workmanship that went into the products themselves
and from the 30's to the early 60's or so, there were more than
a dozen reed makers whose names we no longer see, but many of
them did make really fine products.
I wanted Superial to follow along these lines and to convey a certain message of that tradition. Because these reeds are made by Var craftspeople with decades of experience and have design and material similalities to some of those wonderful old brands, why not make the packing also a part of it? In the "Golden Age" from the 20's to the 60's, there were products of all kinds packaged to appeal to peoples' desire for high quality and workmanship.
And incidentally, just listen to all the incredible music that was made by woodwind players of that era!! Talk about TONE!!
With musical instruments and accessories as well, some of the presentation those days took on an almost artistic style. Take a look at an old Selmer, Conn, or Otto Link catalogue and this immediately will hit you. As much as I don't like to say it, I think some of the packaging we see today does indeed reflect a kind of "over mass production" .
I mean we are talking about MUSIC here, not plumbing parts! Aesthetics count!
So, I just thought to make the
name, box, and labeling of Superial to somehow convey the
actual quality of material and workmanship
that goes into to these elegant little sound generators, these
reeds. Why not make them look beautiful as well?
Q. I got turned on to "vintage saxophones" (once known as "old saxophones") by Paul Lindemeyer. I bought a wonderful 1928 Conn alto from him. The scrollwork is incredible on this and all horns of that vintage. You look at the "nude" Selmers from the seventies without scrollwork and you just know that something's missing. I have a friend with a tenor which has not a bit of scrollwork. I wonder if it's any coincidence that the horn is "cold" sounding. More importantly, I think scrollwork reflects craftsmanship in instrument manufacture, a kind of connectedness with all those German watchmakers Col. Conn brought over to Elkhart, right up to the incredible scrollwork I saw on a new Yanagisawa bari the other day . . . and I AM in the market for a bari! Do you think I'll be buying a Seventies Selmer without a single floral filigree? No chance! I want to know that my new bari was built by craftsmen (and craftswomen, too)!
A. When I think back of what it was like in the States when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's, I know it's an era we'll never see again. I just found a 1956 Conn catalogue that shows just how dedicated they used to be.... Man, they were serious! And the fact that there is so much interest in vintage saxes today reveals an appreciation for the fine type of manufacturing that flourished in that age. The whole trend toward mass production, "the bottom line" that seemed to start in the 70's--plywood, slap-bang type of production--is really a shame. American manufacturing used to be the envy of the world and those great vintage instruments prove the point. Hopefully we can begin to turn that around, and I know there are some other people in the woodwind world who are trying to work in this direction.
Look at many reeds today. They just don't seem to be as good as they once were, at least as far as I can see. Its' not entirely the manufacturers' fault, though. Production volumes are so much higher today and Var cane is becoming scarcer and more expensive. But I meant what I said about coming up with Superial out of utter frustration with the other big named reeds I was buying and trying to play.
What's the point of getting a great horn and mouthpiece and spending years of long tone practice just to have it all go down the drain when you are blowing your brains out on a gig just trying to make the thing play. The reed IS the source of the sound.... It's as simple as that.
Q. How are your goals and dreams shaping up for the next five and ten years? Do you see yourself being in serious direct competition with the Ricos and VanDorens of the world, or would you rather remain a niche product for those demanding a certain level of quality? Or, do you see no difference between these positions--quality being the only true measure of competition, player loyalty being more important than the lowest common denominator approach?
A. Wow, the next five or ten years? Now that's an interesting question......
On a personal level I don't have much from my crystal ball yet, but at some point I'd like to get back more into music like I was before. I mean for over the past 20 years I put in around 2,000 gigs of just about every type you can imagine . . . Big Band, jazz of all types, funk, semi classical, Latin, and original music with the band we put together in Japan, META.
I found myself very attracted to classical music and composition and this band was a great vehicle to experiment with jazz and classical forms. I was also most fortunate to study composition and theory with an excellent composer on the scene over here, Bruce Stark. He opened my eyes to the importance of structure and really helped me grow as a writer. So it would be great to continue my studies with him and my own composition some day when I'm hoping to have more free time than I do now.
Unfortunately, because of chronic neck and back problems, I pretty much have had to hang saxophone playing for the time being. But I was gratified to see that Cadence Magazine just reviewed META's second CD "Metamorphosis" in their July '98 issue.
Anyhow, the sound of the saxophone is always there inside my head and all those gigs I did in clubs, concerts, schools, and wherever stay with me. Without that experience, I never would have learned what I needed to know in order to come up with the reeds.
And back to the reeds: I don't know how much I can compete against Vandoren and Rico with their huge advertising campaign budgets. But what's apparent to me so far at least, is that there is a steadily growing array of players who seem to swear by Superial. What more could I possibly ask for?
This brings to mind a saxophonist who is one of the leading players on the jazz stage today: Joe Lovano. Here's a musician that I've known about and loved for years who told me that they are the best reeds he's tried in ages. And what makes Joe so special in a way, is the musical ground he covers. I mean with Joe, you hear how the saxophone has developed from the past and where it's heading to in the future and believe me, he makes a reed WORK!
Another interesting thing to me is that he also sometimes plays not only "DC", but Superial and "Classique" as well. In other words, he's finding they work to cover different tonal gound, and therefore his palette has been expanded, and that's exactly why I came out with these different models. But it's also important to remember that players who try our reeds for the first time, should match the right model with one that will work best for the set up and reed harness they've been using. For example, if someone has been playng Lavoz for years, "DC" will feel too hard, and visa versa, if they have been using Vandoren Classic, they shouldn't be trying Superial or the tips will feel too soft. More on this can be found on the bottom of the following page: http://www.superial.com/notes.html
I can tell you that it isn't easy to introduce a new reed to a market that already has around thirty models or so, but when a player of Joe Lovano's stature decides to switch over to our reeds, I know they must be delivering something...
I've also heard from scores of other players about how the reeds seemed to bring out what they were looking for (some of their comments can be seen here: http://www.superial.com/commentse.html
Of course I believe the reeds must be promoted through advertising to let players know they exist and what they are all about. As many musicians know, you can record a CD of absolutely fantastic music, but without the right promotion, chances are it will just end up collecting dust in a record store bin. It's also ironically true, I think, that a CD of only fair to so-so musical integrity can "get over" because of high-powered advertising and exposure. .
I'm just trying to let people know what other saxophonists have told me about our reeds and that speaks for itself. If I'd been satisfied with the quality and performance of reeds from the big makers, I never would have even thought of making Superial, so in a sense I guess I should be thanking them, as well!
Yes, player loyalty should be based on quality . Getting players to try something new is always a challenge. Be that as it may, I do feel that the number of Superial users will grow, as long as players give the reeds a fair trial to really learn what they are all about. I recommend at least a month of testing on the cut and stength number that is most suitable for them.
Q. The most excitement I've seen in 30 years of observing in the saxophone world has been from guys a lot like you: Paul Lindemeyer and his book (and his tireless love of C.G. Conn, Limited), Ron Coelho and his CNC machined mouthpieces, J Clark in Berkeley, Bear at Cybersax.com, Peter Fluck (aka saxmanpete@webtv.net), and the rest of the vintage dealers. The one thing the have in common is they understand how the web can be used to get their message to the rest of us saxophonists in a way that was never possible before.
So, here you are, an American in Japan, running a business whose product is produced in France, being sold very much on the world stage, but I assume mostly in the United States. Is it safe to say the Internet may have made a great deal of this possible?
A. The Internet is a very powerful tool of communication which has yet only reached a small percentage of its potential audience. Yes, Richard, I'd agree with you that for the group of us who are trying to spread the message of what we are creating, it is an excellent medium to do so.
I compare using the Net to taking a ride in a space ship whose only limitations are ones imposed by its pilot --we, the users! And for someone like me who lives abroad, it is priceless gift: clear, direct communication instantaneously.
Specifically for the group of musicians, artisans, vintage dealers, writers, etc. you mentioned (most of them who are friends, by the way, and let's not forget Dr. Paul Tenney, Theo Wanne, Joe Sax et al, in this group), will all benefit from the way the Net reaches out, because the Web is the Great Equalizer.
On the Web, we are all more or less on an equal par, I'd say. For example, the big reeds makers can support very pricey and frequent magazine ad placement. We can't yet, but a homepage is the same size and runs for 24 hours a day for all of us. A new kind of level playing field has been established and with small companies loosing ground to giant corporations and "corporate mentality", it's refreshing to know that we all have some kind of chance these days.
To be able to read comments about our reeds from players as far away as Norway, Korea, or Australia on the same day they tested them is astounding! And there is nothing better than turning on my computer in the morning and getting emails from musicians who seem thoroughly jazzed about how the reeds are working for them.
That's when I know that all the effort, time and expense I've invested in this product has been worth it.
Mission accomplished!