Photo by keisis44, Flickr

I have had the absolute pleasure to exchange messages back and fourth with Denis DiBlasio over the past few months and it is my great pleasure to say he seems to be a quite pleasant person. He has entertained my questions both silly and serious with great humor. I will go on record to say that he was the first baritone saxophonist I had ever heard and enjoyed. I heard him first during his stint with Maynard Ferguson and have been a fan since.  I am a fan of Bruce Johnstone but i don’t have anything by him other than the Maynard Stuff.

What have I learned? Firstly he is still using the Vandoren V16 – B9 with Vandoren Traditional blue box reeds. That would help to explain his full, focused, and warm tone when compared to someone like Gary Smulyan. Secondly he has another recording ini the works but he didn’t give any details. It  is my hope that he will bring in another Bari player like Smulyan or Jason Marshall to have a bit of a dueling thing happening.

That’s the little bit that I have for now but as I learn I will pass it along. By the way if  you haven’t had the chance to listen to his album Where the Jade Buddah Lives, you are missing some fantastic playing and I will be sharing my experience with the album as I continue to digest it.