I tried these yesterday at Massullo Music while purchasing one of the great new Rousseau NC Classical Tenor mouthpieces that were recently released by Jody Espina. I brought along four of the most popular mouthpieces that I stock in the studio to test against the SAV’s. Lovely mouthpieces indeed, but not as lovely as the new SAV from Chedeville. The SAV is made without the proprietary Chedeville rubber to lower the price and they prove that it is not just the Chedeville CHR Rubber that makes Chedeville mouthpieces great!

The SAV’s are not just brilliant, they also have a lovely complex tone chock full of colour, and are very free blowing with great clear articulation. The more I played them, the prettier I found them, and they beat out all the very popular mouthpieces I brought with me solidly. So, I brought them back to the studio to put them up against stiff competition from other custom mouthpiece makers, and they were prettier than any other mouthpiece in the collection… except for my lovely Chedeville Umbra F3, of course.

So, I’m buying the Chedeville SAV3 and it will be pounced upon by lots of students and colleagues when they try it. At half the price of the Chedeville Umbra, it’s a deal you just cannot pass up. Another one-two punch for Jody Espina….the best two clarinet mouthpieces on the planet, in my opinion.

I was already in love with the warm, centred contained ringing tone, great intonation and projection of the JodyJazz HR* Soprano, and the JodyJazz Custom Dark version is even better. It adds a broader, warmer, slightly grainier glow to the tone.  I never thought anything could be more beautiful than my lovely HR*.  I’m going to keep both in my case, just so I can enjoy two gorgeous beauties.  This mouthpiece will be of immense benefit of those who need to “tame” their Soprano!

I spent five hours with four of these Chedeville Elite Bass Clarinet mouthpieces yesterday, but the very first note I played down at Massullo Music turned heads and blew away ears. I was speechless for a moment and then could only say “wow.”

It’s not like I don’t have a great bass clarinet mouthpiece collection, but there is nothing anywhere like these. The combination of instant response, effortless register leaps, shimmering warmth and liquidity in the upper register, chocolate covered caramel in the chalumeau, crystal clear articulation, robust power and pure pianissimos has to be heard to be believed. So…try one of these out and become a believer. I was astonished…you will be too.

Jody Espina has come through as expected, reviving the incredible designs of Dr Eugene Rousseau with investment in the brand, beautiful packaging, highly trained technicians and an incredible eye for detailed quality control. This is up there with reviving the Chedeville line of mouthpieces, so he has now honoured the legacy of two icons of the single reed world. Rousseau mouthpieces have joined the Chedeville line up as the 1-2 punch that knocks out all my previous favourite mouthpieces. There is stiff competition out there, but I will be stocking these in my studio along with the Chedevilles I play, and I anticipate many students and colleagues trying these out and changing their musical lives for the better. The warm, glowing, luminous sound of Dr Rousseau emenates gloriously from these wonderful ‘pieces. You’ll be ecstatic, as am I.

This is something the bass clarinet world and I have been awaiting….since…well, there were Bass Clarinets. Finally, a fine intermediate bass clarinet! Not just at a great price…the first one in existence. Unlike most other instruments, there has been no good student model bass clarinet. The best of them is just the “best of the worst.” Thanks to Kessler Music in Las Vegas, we have the Kessler Custom Artist Series Bass Clarinet with three models: Low Eb, Low C, and a “stealth” model, the Low C in All Black Finish. Due to Michael Lowenstern’s detailed YouTube review and side by side blind playing test against the Selmer Privilege, a dear friend and colleague bought the “stealth” model and brought it to my studio for a “gear geek” evening. We put it through it’s paces against my Backun and Das Blashaus modified Privilege and tested a dozen mouthpieces on it. Pretty quickly, I forgot I was not playing a $15,000 Porsche, but a $3000 Audi. Please understand that is high praise indeed.

It is one of the few new instruments I’ve ever tested that plays very well right out of the box. Most new instruments need a $500 to $1000 setup before they play well. Not this baby. It’s got power, sweetness, good intonation, and good response over the whole range. The fine double register mechanism eliminates the huge issue of ALL student bass clarinets of difficult response and poor tone on notes above the staff.

After testing out a dozen mouthpieces, I recommend the Backun Vocalise G, Selmer Focus or Vandoren B45 with this horn, and Kessler Music is giving a discount on these with your purchase.

I will be recommending it to all my clarinetist friends, band directors, students, high schools with which I work, and of course anyone who has to play outdoors! There should be a huge market for these instruments to military bands! It should replace every student instrument in every school in the world. Period.

Let’s all kneel down and say “Thank you, Dave Kessler and family” every year on the anniversary of this instrument’s release.

I just received my samples yesterday, and they were so unbelievable that I put them through their paces again this morning, in case it was just a beautiful dream. Guy Légère has done it again.

He’s made the perfect even better.

The Alto has an enhanced warm shimmer and the Tenor is brawnier and more centred. There is a hint more grain on both reeds…always a great thing for the saxophone… and no other synthetic reed achieves that. The response and projection is amazing, the altissimo is perfectly stable and subtones are warm and breathy.

These are not only Jazz reeds, they are amazing Classical reeds as well. Warm, pure, rich and resonant…and they provide all sorts of colour…anything your musical imagination dictates.

Simply breathtaking.

I have not been unhappy with my current jazz Alto mouthpiece, but it is now relegated to one of my mouthpiece peg-boards with the other 200 or so very fine mouthpieces in my collection.

JodyJazz simply blows away the competition again…effortlessly. Since the early 1980’s, small chamber, small bore, high baffle mouthpieces have almost dominated the industry, and I’ve never been convinced. I’ve been choosing the least edgy and warmest modern mouthpieces available, because vintage Meyers are really hard to find. 

The search is over. If you long for a mouthpiece that can honor the tonal spectrum from Paul Desmond to Phil Woods and everywhere in between, you need to try the JodyJazz HR* Custom Dark Alto mouthpiece.

Act quickly…these babies just fly off the shelves.

I had a request from Massullo Music to test Chedeville mouthpieces with Légère reeds, since I am a Légère artist and dealer.  They’re incredible, especially when playing multiple doubles in musical theatre and for outdoor gigs, and my students and colleagues are delighted with them.  

Anyway, when I tested the Légères on Chedeville mouthpieces, I was amazed and delighted!  Not only did they sound fantastic, but when I went through all my previous favorite mouthpieces there was no comparison.  Chedeville mouthpieces make synthetic reeds sound and respond more like cane than any other mouthpiece I own (and that is over 200 very fine mouthpieces.)  

Chedeville mouthpieces lend synthetic reeds a denser and more resonant tone, with more warmth and grain, exactly what we are all looking for! I’m going to be a lot happier in the pit from now on!  

Try your synthetic reeds on Chedeville today! You will be amazed, too.!

Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine asked me for a follow-up article on ligatures five years after my original “Ligature Choices” piece in 2015. In “Latest Ligatures” I reviewed many new products and then ranked all of the ligatures from both articles. The absolutely stellar Power Ring, a work of sheer genius, went straight to the top. I recently tested the amazing new Chedeville Umbra clarinet mouthpieces against a handful of my very favourite ‘pieces out of the four dozen I own. The most incredible thing was how much better those mouthpieces played than I remembered…and it was due to this ligature! For more details, you can find the article on the educational resources page of this website.

The legacy of Charles Chedeville is fully realized with this new line of Chedeville classical clarinet mouthpieces, made with Jody Espina’s incredible proprietary CHR rubber. I own over four dozen excellent soprano clarinet mouthpieces, and could play any of them. Out of these, there are a handful that, in my opinion, set the very highest standard. The Umbra, seemingly coming out of nowhere, is at the very pinnacle. Astonishingly free-blowing and easy to articulate for a mouthpiece of this depth of colour, it can do everything from Mozart to Monk. Just…phenomenal.