Hey, hey!
Hope you're off to a great summer. It was a pretty eventful spring here in Southern California with some wonderful experiences I wanted to share with you.
To start, I’m totally stoked about the amazing strides my coaching clients are making. I feel so grateful to work with folks of all ages from all over the place and it's just awesome seeing how fast they pick things up!
Also, I had the privilege of presenting an improv clinic in Redondo Beach a few weeks ago. Watching the transformation of students, from being afraid to improvise, to deliberately making melodies and having a ball doing it in under and hour, was truly inspiring.
Not to mention it's always a treat to visit Redondo Beach. 🏖️☀️
In other exciting news, I recently got my hands on the new 52nd Street tenor saxophone from Eastman - it was definitely love at first sight! 🎷😍
I was so thrilled with it that I took it out on its first gig the very next day at Frank Sinatra’s old stomping grounds, the legendary Purple Room in Palm Springs.
This horn is SO much fun to play!
It's an Eastman 800 series saxophone, exclusively played by fellow Eastman Artist, Bob Mintzer, and it combines vintage qualities with modern key mechanisms. It has sterling silver plating in place of traditional pearls, flute-like risers for comfort, and a M(intzer) neck for optimal response, sound, and tuning.
I want to encourage my fellow sax player buddies to play one of these ASAP and see for yourself why Bob said that this instrument gives him "the ability to facilitate free musical expression without technical concerns."
Another highlight of the month was performing for my first time at Herb Alpert's Vibrato Grill in Bel Air, CA. Wow, it’s such a beautiful club and it sounds incredible!
My friend Adrian captured my solo on “Nature Boy” with this fantastic Los Angeles band. Click the pic below to see it. It’ll only take you 1:07 to watch the whole thing. (Adrian's a super nice dude so we'll give him a pass on the shaky start. 😂🎥)
Oh, one more thing…
Chaka Khan was there and joined us onstage!
(I could not stop smiling...check out my goofy grin... 😂)
Now, on to some cool things on the horizon...
I'm working on moving bebopbootcamp.com to a new platform (WordPress instead of Clickfunnels). That means finding exactly what you're looking for on the site will be much easier. And with our array of transcriptions, exercises, ebooks, and video courses at your fingertips, your jazz journey's about to get a fresh spin. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.
Speaking of a fresh spin, why not try something different this summer?
Whether or not you've taken the course before, it's the perfect time to dig into Bebop Boot Camp. In just eight weeks, you'll be ready to show off your freshly polished bop chops at your August gigs. You’ll get loads of video lessons, ebooks, backing tracks and more at an unbeatable price.
You can take the first lesson absolutely FREE below.
Thanks for reading! And as always, please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.
Happy Summer,
Kenyon
*PS - If eight weeks sounds like too much of a commitment right now, but you're still looking for something different, why not check out our 4:22 Boppin' Blues Challenge?
This unique 4 day program is designed to help you unlock your potential in just 22 minutes and a day. Plus, it's a lot of fun! You can find out more about it right here:
