Marca Reeds Overview

In fact, I almost forgot what it was like to play something other than synthetic. There's obviously a ton of similarities, but at the end of the day a cane reed is more or less the standard in the industry. Needless to say, I ended up spending more time with these than I typically would while reviewing a product to make sure that I felt every nuance of what 'good cane' was.

Through these tests, I got to play around with the American Vintage (purple box), Jazz Filed (black box), and Jazz Unfiled (white box). I'm super thankful for Tim and Aaron Elvy of Elvy Sound Solutions who took the time to get these over to me to test out. 

The American Vintage reeds are ones that I see a lot of players using. Over the years, I've been told about these reeds by Charles McNeal, Alonzo Wright, Darren Rahn, and Arno Haas (who makes a bit of an appearance in our video above!). These have been trusted heavily by guys whose opinions really count in my world- so I was excited to play through these a bit.

These are marketed primarily to jazz players- similar to the other Marca Reeds that we played through. The overall tone that I got out of these was ::dark::. If you're looking for a super buzzy reed, this isn't it. The American Vintage reeds have a dark, big sound. In my mind, very similar to what I imagine someone like Cannonball Adderley or even Paul Desmond would have used. Although these reeds weren't super articulate in terms of attack, they were smooth and soft sounding and they had a very natural voice to them. Articulation was a little bit less present than in some of the other Marca Reeds. In the tonal spectrum, I was missing a little bit of the high end that I normally hear in my setup, and I feel like this might be what I was thinking was lacking a bit in the articulation department. Regardless, this is a very melodious or lyrical sound that I got from the American Vintage.

It's worth your time to watch the above video when Arno Haas shows us his experiences with the American Vintage Reeds. Although Arno is an endorser of Marca, his opinion matters to me a lot in the saxophone world. Arno is a very picky (but fair) saxophone player with a monstrous tone, great facility on the instrument, and is also an experienced saxophone technician. He's very connected to the horn, and really knows what to look for in the products that he plays.

Of the three boxes that I played through, the Jazz Filed were my least favorite, but I still think that they're a great reed.

After researching these online (before playing them), I saw that these were marketed towards jazz, pop, and R&B players but I felt from the first note that these were much more similar to the American Vintage. These reeds were very dark in tone just like the American Vintage reeds. As well, I noticed that the articulation was on the soft side- also similar to the American Vintage reeds. 

One thing that was immediately apparent when I started testing these was that the upper registers of the horn were actually darker in tone than the American Vintage. I think I found out very quickly that this wasn't the reed for me, but there are a lot of players who would really benefit from this type of reed. Especially players that are really into the periods of Bebop through Post-Bop and Modal Jazz. The tonality of these reeds blend perfectly inside those styles of music. 

The Jazz Filed reeds ended up being my favorites out of the three boxes that I had playtested. 

For me, I immediately had the natural tone that I was used to, and I felt at home on these. These were very quick to respond right off the line, and I got the articulation back that I felt like I lost on the American Vintage. These reeds were bright and crisp, although a little husky in sound. These are on their way to being a 'buzzy' reed, but maintained great tone without the airy sacrifice. Overall, THESE are the reeds that I find to be the most suitable for the Pop and R&B players. They are just super-present and very lively in terms of tone. 

If you're looking for an overall easier playing experience as a saxophonist, these are a reed that I would recommend that you try out. In my case (and my setup), I had to do the least amount of work (physically) to get these to play well with great tone. These simply responded quicker than the other two boxes. I'm not entirely sure why though, considering how much more slowly the other Jazz Unfiled reeds. To me, these boxes should have been the most similar.