Jon De Lucia: Octet this weekend and Bach Shapes Updates

Concert News and Book Updates

The Jon De Lucia Octet returns to celebrate Lee Konitz

I am excited to bring my five saxophone Octet to St. John's Lutheran Church in the West Village this Sunday at 3:30pm as part of Janet Sora Chung's awesome series, St. John's Presents. This time around we will be focusing on some arrangements that Lee Konitz, now in his 90th year, originally played on in the 1950s. This includes tunes from the Gerry Mulligan Songbook Recording, Lee Konitz meets Jimmy Giuffre, and a few of my own inspired by the great altoist. The band will also feature the great Steve Little, who recorded with Duke Ellington, Paul Simon, Sesame Street and more! Above is a short video of the band doing "Someone to Watch Over Me," from the Giuffre album, thanks to Michael Steinman.

Here are the details:

Jon De Lucia - Alto Sax, Arrangements

John Ludlow - Alto

Jay Rattman - Tenor

Marc Schwartz - Tenor

Andrew Hadro - Bari

Stefan Vasnier - Piano

Aidan O'Donnell - Bass

Steve Little - Drums

St. John's Lutheran Church, 81 Christopher St. 

Sunday November 12, 3:30 -5pm. $15

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1723022744660718/

Keep an eye out for the recording from last year's concert with Ted Brown, I hope to have it finished and released very soon!

Bach Shapes and Other News

Some of you have signed up for this list when you ordered my new book, Bach Shapes: Diatonic Sequences for Saxophone. I truly appreciate you picking it up and ask that you spread the word so that Bach Shapes can be found in more stores worldwide. If you haven't yet, please do write a review of the book on Amazon or on the saxophone forums. Here is some feedback I recently received from some great players and teachers:

“Jazz musicians have naturally gravitated towards the music of JS Bach for years, so a book like this one has been a long time coming. Jon has done a wonderful job capturing various snapshots of Bach’s seemingly infinite musical language, organizing these shapes in a setting that could be very useful to improvisers. A truly interesting and enjoyable book that will hopefully lead to more volumes in the future.”  –Miguel Zenon, International Touring Artist

“A valuable tool for students who would like a refreshing change from regular forms of scale exercises. The challenging intervals and ranges would give any serious player a good workout! Thank you for this wonderful addition to our study materials!” – Kenneth Tse, Professor at University of Iowa, President of the Comite International de Saxophone

Read the Press Release here.

The book is available in store at Roberto's Woodwinds in Midtown Manhattan,the Buffet Showroom on 35th st. and also at Music Espresso in Boston.

Jamey Aebersold's Jazzbooks.com, and Van Cott Music along with my site. 

The book is great for interval and ear training practice, and can also really contribute to your motivic improvising. 4 jazz etudes at the end point the way towards using the material improvisationally, but blog posts on the new Bach Shapes sub-blog will go even further.

Our first series has been on the great Paul Desmond, you can read all three entries at www.jondelucia.com/blog. Bachshapes.com will also be a future source of updates on the book.

Also in classical news, I will be participating once again in a great kids' concert at the Brooklyn Museum with the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra on November 18th, more info here.

Visit jondelucia.com for:

Digital Downloads of books and CD's

The NYC Jazz Club Map

Blog Posts on jazz history and theory