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ROUSSEAU JDX 7 "This was my first outing on a Rousseau mouthpiece, and I must admit I was a little sceptical. With typical jazz players prudence, I thought what could this classical guy Eugene Rousseau offer? But, with gritted teeth, my initial impressions of the JDX are good. Inside the mouthpiece there is a raised baffle, with a step leading down to a horseshoe shaped chamber. This makes the tone warm and full but with an undoubting jazz like buzzy sound, a la Johnny Hodges. There is a lot of power in this mouthpiece but is still great for control. When I put this mouthpiece on any of the modern saxes we stock it helped get a vintage sound. There is a surprising nice bit of bite and the tone is consistent throughout the range of the sax.This particular tip opening was a little close for my liking and the upper register was a bit of a workout. It was especially noticeable when playing up in the altissimo register; I just couldn’t get the response I’m used to. However, interestingly I know a couple of pros in a local big band that use the JDX and it works well and certainly cuts through. The JDX is great for sax section work and for lead players who like to have a little bit of edge but with an underlying jazz tone. A good ligature combo is the old faithful Rovner Light or the BG Super Revelation, with either Rico Jazz Select/La Voz or Vandoren ZZ, although I found the Vandoren a little too resistant." -TC
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