Paul Perez doesnt frequent the forum a lot. Ive had the pleasure of knowing and working with him for a number of years. Great guy...pure gold. Here is his reaction to the Tribute:
MY LINK STORY: I started formal sax studies in 1977 with a cat named
Roy Meder. He was 70 yrs old when we met and it felt very much like I
had just been introduced to my "Yoda" of saxophone. Keep in mind at
that time all the horn bands were in full swing, The Brecker Bros,
Average White Band, Cold Blood, Tower of Power, Chicago, Blood Sweat
& Tears, Earth Wind and Fire ect ect were all at the top of their
game. Being new to the sax I was influenced by everyone playin' sax
back then, bein' young and ignorant (weren't we all) I started buyin'
the set ups my heroes used to sound just like them (sound familiar)
so at one time or other I had a 130/0 stainless Berg to sound like
Lenny, an 8 Link to sound like Stanley T, a Strathon to be Tom Scott,
HR Berg 130 to sound like Ronnie Laws and Grover, a Level Air to
sound like John Klemmer, a Dukoff to sound like Mike Brecker and
that's just the pieces I can remember, there were more, many many
more! Of course my teacher was subjected to probably bad playin' on
all of them and finally one day he sat me down and said, "you know,
it takes about three yrs on one piece to really learn how to play
that one piece, you keep comin' in here with a new piece every three
weeks! How are you ever gonna learn what any piece can do if you keep
changing like that?" Then he said, "if you think about it, most of
the greatest Jazz solos were recorded on LINKS so get yourself a
Link, all you need is a 6*, spend three yrs on it and you'll be able
to do anything you want cause if you learn how to play a Link, it can
do anything." Well BOOM finally the answer I was lookin' for! As it
turned out, a good friend was up in the Bay Area so I called the dude
and asked him to stop by the "House of Woodwinds" in Oakland and grab
me a 6* Link cause it's all I needed and I was on my way to doin'
anything I wanted on the sax! A week later the Link arrived and I
started my 3 yrs exclusively on that Link 6*. I can honestly say I
hated every day on that Link BUT....... I kept at it, long tones,
voicing exercises on and on tryin' to get that tone all them cats I
was hearing on the radio was gettin'. Along the way my teacher added
in passing one day, "when you become a real man you'll figure out how
to play a Link." So, I continued on my quest for the next three yrs.
After 3 yrs on that Link 6*, someone handed me the new rage in
mouthpieces, something Dave Sanborn and Mike Brecker were playin'
called a Dukoff made outta this strange new metal called Silverite. I
played a couple notes on that thing and thought I'd died and gone to
heaven! The tone, the altissimo, the feel, everything I heard in my
head and couldn't do on the Link was there and I became a high
baffled player that day. HOWEVER......those words from my teacher
resonated in me, he had been right about everything else so every few
yrs I'd grab a Link, confirm I still hated 'em, couldn't play 'em,
wasn't a real man yet and continued on my journey. I did this for a
good 20- 25 yrs but more recently (in the last couple of years), I've
had the chance (because of a friend of mine that sells vintage Links
and was himself pursuing "The Missing Link"), to play some very fine
Links, Links from Bob Sheppard, Bob Mintzer, Brandon Fields, Ricky
Woodard ect. I'm talkin' Double Rings, Floridas, EBs, Tone Masters
you name it. On top of that, I've sent a few Links to Brian Powell,
Mojo, John Reilly and was sitting in John Reilly's house when he
baffled and faced 3 Links to send to Eric Alexander. So, when Phil
contacted me about his new Tribute you better believe I was
interested! It's taken me almost 30 yrs to understand what my teacher
was tryin' to teach me and to appreciate the beauty of what a good
Link can do. I can honestly say with no hesitation that Phil's
Tribute is as good as any Link out there, in fact there's no need to
continue searching for the "one good Link" in the batch or the
elusive "missing Link", Phil has done all the work for you, no
refacing necessary, no undercutting the window and so on, his Tribute
plays as good as Links play. Will you sound like Brecker on his
Double Ring or his Dukoff, prolly not, you probably wont sound like
Stanley T or Lenny Pickett either but you will have a gorgeous tenor
tone, the tone the tenor was meant to have. If that's what your
lookin' for, it's finally available, a Link you can play and enjoy
knowing there's nothing better! As for me, I ended up playin' with
Cold Blood, Tower of Power, the Temptations, Donna Summer, The
Coasters, bein' featured with Smokey Robinson ect just so you know I
ain't no slouch and finally the end of the story: About a year ago I
was relating my "Link story" to one of the music professors where I
teach, his face got kinda scrunched up as I was talking and then he
said,"you know, your teacher probably said a lotta great things that
day, (in reference to bein' a real man) but that's the only thing you
remember"..........................DOH!
Paul