| That's precisely why I went to Vince Cichowicz in 1980!
The first person I heard with that articulation was Ed Carrol when he transferred to Juilliard. It was different from what we were learning with Vacchiano but I always thought it sounded cool. When I got to Seattle, my second player, Jeff Cole, had that same articulation and I got very curious about it. Jeff turned out, incidentally, to be one of the most profoundly influential people on the evolution of my playing. He doesn't play anymore but he was a wonderful musician when he was playing.
Eventually I found myself in a lesson with Vince where he encouraged me to think a bit more emphatically about the consonant with which I started my tones. He then had me slow my practice down dramatically and use my ear to create that sound consistently.
Now, I go back and forth between a variety of articulation styles using the consonant as my aural guide.
ML |