“Jody Espina has knocked it out of the park again with the new HR* CUSTOM DARK Tenor mouthpiece. After establishing a stellar classical saxophone mouthpiece division using his proprietary CHR Chedeville rubber, he has now used the rubber for a jazz tenor saxophone mouthpiece for the first time. When played softly, it reminds me strongly of the sound of Stan Getz. John Coltrane said “Let’s face it–we’d all sound like that if we could,” and who are we to argue with Trane? When you go for it in a big band or commercial setting, it will stand up to the brass and amplified instruments as well as any mouthpiece out there. I don’t know of any other mouthpiece that can inhabit both those worlds so well. The Chedeville classical mouthpieces Jody designed have made a clean sweep on my Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone, and I told him the HR* CUSTOM DARKS will do the same for my jazz setups. Bravo, Jody, and keep ’em coming!”

“The JodyJazz HR* Soprano 5* mouthpiece allows for the rich warm tonal center that pleases me on all single reed mouthpieces, and just adds that slight edge that allows us to cut through the brass when playing with large ensembles. In my opinion the Soprano should never be strident and should have a contained ringing tone (like ALL musical instruments, including the human voice.) The JodyJazz HR* allows for that with great intonation, and can also provide incredible projection. The key to projection is tone, and it is also the key to “in-tone-ation!” All of Jody’s mouthpieces provide a great big tone, and the HR* line can also provide gentleness and beauty.”

“The JodyJazz POWER RING is a work of genius. The heavy mass of the ligature lends incredibly rich resonance to the tone, while the limited contact points allow for great life in the sound and terrific ease of articulation. I own over a hundred excellent ligatures, and the POWER RING blows them all away. These are not just for jazz… they are also beautiful classical ligatures with the most resonant core sound you’ve ever heard for soloists, large ensemble, and chamber players.”