|
To me, Twicesax is more than just a band I play with for a gig - it is an outlet, a hang with my best friends, a place to learn and grow, and a group that lets me enjoy music more than any other place I play. When David started hosting a jam at the Afterthought years ago, I started feeling the potential of the band, and I am eternally grateful that he allowed me to join him in leading what has become my favorite musical activity. As an outlet, this band let's me play what I want to play, and write what I want to write. Sometimes I need to be aggressive, sometimes I need to be introspective, and sometimes I need to just be plain weird, and these guys provide me a platform, and encourage me to find new places in my playing. As a hang, this band is unsurpassed - I could not ask for a group of people I would rather spend time with, and that makes the atmosphere of rehearsals truly collaborative. When I bring a tune to the band I am always amazed at how it turns out - sometimes exactly as I imagined it, and more often taken in a different (better!) direction that I never could have imagined. David and I have played together for so long that we can read each other's mind, and that allows for some really great things when we play - we don't have to talk, we don't even have to have eye contact, and we can pull off some of the tightest lines on the fly. That telepathy combines one other thing to truly define what gives the band its sound: we have a rock/R&B drummer, a gospel/fusion bass player, a soul singer, and a country guitarist. David has a funk and rock influence, and I have a classical background. We stir it all together to play jazz in a way that I think is unmistakably our own sound. - Brandon Dorris (saxophone et al) ^Snapshots from our last performance at Another Round.
0 Comments
 As the name suggests, TwiceSax was formed around having 2 saxophones in the group. One half of the sax duo is me, Dave Williams II. The other half is my band buddy from college and brother-in-law, Brandon Dorris. We hit it off from the beginning. Both of us are continuously pushing the other to new musical territory. I remember some of the first advice he gave me: "Try playing without vibrato and scooping into every other note." Talk about an eye opener. I have countless texts that read something like, "Hey, check out this group." or "Listen to the sound of this band...I think we could pull this off." It's been great watching our vocabulary grow individually and together since we started playing together back in college. I think one of the things that sets the two of us apart from other horn duos around town is how we listen to each other. From the articulation at the beginning of each note, to the tone and inflection, all the way through to the end of the note. The phrasing and dynamics almost seem to happen without verbal discussion. I consider myself lucky to have the rest of the boys in the band, but TwiceSax wouldn't be TwiceSax without the other half of the sax section. For that, I feel extremely lucky to have someone who pays attention to the little details. It makes my job a lot easier.
- Dave Williams II (Saxophone) |
ArchivesCategories |
RSS Feed
