Artistes
The Sound and me | Doug O'Connor
Saxophonist Doug O'Connor pushes the athletic limits of his instrument and features music from all eras and in many styles, including classical, contemporary, jazz and electronic music. He strives to champion new works, present adventurous and innovative chamber music, perform with an improvisatory command of music from Bach to Coltrane, and connect music with technology in a live show. Today he talks about his relationship with the sound.
“To me, a saxophone sound is a very visceral, physical thing. It's one of the reasons why I got into the instrument.
I was the worst clarinet player in school band for several years, and I played a little bit of piano, had very little interest in music, wanted to be an architect. But when I picked up the saxophone, there was something of a physical connection. You can feel the sound, you can taste it, you can engage with it. And there's something about the saxophone in particular that carries that across. And that's a really important thing to me when playing on a given instrument.
So for me, personally, I like a big, full-bodied trumpet, maybe conn 8D, French Horn, saxophone sound on alto. I like the approach to the instrument as a huge, voluptuous, giant, beautiful instrument that can cross the gap from masculine to feminine, that can be brilliant and bright and shimmering and dark and voluptuous at the same time.
On the alto, I play an instrument now that lets me do a lot of contemporary techniques and achieve a lot of homogeneity with that full-bodied sound. When playing other styles, like on jazz, and sometimes in classical as well, I much prefer an instrument that is not homogenous, that has lots of character, where the middle of the horn and the top of the horn have their own character.
Because nowadays, lots of instruments and manufacturers are pushing to achieve better intonation and everything more equal. And that's, while admirable, when everyone's trying to do that, now what I find interesting about a particular instrument is the unique voice of it, the particular voice of the sound and the personality of it."
