American Saxophone Quartet

INFORMATION
American Saxophone Quartet
Albert Regni
Spanning the River [CD]
Gandy Dancer [CD]
El Amor [CD]
02/07/99 Concert
03/05/99 Concert
Larry Combs

HOFFER Variations on a Theme of Stravinsky
HAMPTON Labyrinth
MATTHEWS Chantefleur
BARAB Quartet

If you have no leanings toward jazz, read no further. This is music that successfully bridges the gap between jazz and classical music, with more emphasis toward the former. The "classical" mood is established with the well-known fairground theme from Stravinsky's ballet Petrouchka. Bernard Hoffer, better known for his work in film and television, uses this theme well over an extended score of some 10 minutes. He reintroduces the theme around the midpoint before embarking on music that demonstrates the quartet's combined virtuosity. Calvin Hampton, who distinguished himself as a church organist and composer, here provides an overtly modern score, Labyrinth. After the hectic and breathless activity of the opening section, a soprano is introduced in the final section as the music moves to a style that mixes Schoenberg with Beno.

We move to modern jazz for Chantefleur, composed by the founder of the famous Manhattan Jazz Quintet, David Matthews. Opening quietly, the music grows in intensity to the long improvisation for Bob Mintzer's tenor sax. As elsewhere on the disc, the playing is superb, but in many ways this makes a curious companion to the remainder of the disc. The "classical" theme returns with Seymour Barab's Quartet, a work that has its ancestry in 19th-century wind music, the central Andante Maestoso a nice exploration of the tonal qualities of the four saxophones. The final Presto has a naughty French atmosphere, the music twisting and turning in the most unexpected directions.

The 1984 recorded sound does tend to get a little congested in the big tutti passages. with inner clarity somewhat lost, though it captures the individual tonal quality of the instruments in solo passages to perfection. I would commend the disc without reservation to all saxophone enthusiasts, for this is playing of highest quality. Without that inclination, you must first try track 3, Chantefleur. If you are happy there, go ahead, buy it.

David Denton

Fanfare November/December 1999 p.437

©1999 Fanfare. Used by permission.

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