Liner Notes

American Saxophone Quartet: Spanning the River
(Sons of Sound SSPCD002)

SPANNING THE RIVER, for the ASQ, means using the remarkably versatile saxophone to cross the waters of time, place, and musical genre, building bridges between Baroque and contemporary works, American and international composers, and both classical and jazz forms.

THE AMERICAN SAXOPHONE QUARTET
ALBERT REGNI, soprano, is Principal Saxophone with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet Orchestras. He has released two critically acclaimed solo saxophone recordings, Extended Saxophone (CRI) and Three Dark Paintings (Open Loop). Well known internationally for his work on the concert stage and in recording studios, he has appeared at the music festivals of Marlboro, Aspen, and Edinburgh.

DAVID DEMSEY, alto, is Coordinator of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Equally at home on a concert stage or a bandstand, he has recorded classical and jazz performances on the Centaur and Golden Crest labels. He has written books on John Coltrane and composer Alec Wilder, liner notes for Verve Records, and is Contributing Editor for Saxophone Journal and Jazz Player magazines.

DAVID CARROLL, tenor, is Associate Principal Bassoon of the New York Philharmonic and on the faculty of The Juilliard School. He is a winner of the Geneva International Music Competition, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Koussevitsky Fellow. He is the tenor saxophone soloist on the New York Philharmonic’s 1997 recording of Ravel’s "Bolero" (WEA/Atlantic/Teldec).

LINO GOMEZ, baritone, performs frequently with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony, and New York City Ballet Orchestras as well as the New Jersey Symphony, where he also performs on the bass clarinet. His chamber music credits include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players at Tanglewood and recordings with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is Principal Clarinet for Miss Saigon on Broadway and a former member of The Saturday Night Live Band.

THE COMPOSERS
DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685-1757), the greatest Italian composer for harpsichord of his time, wrote over six hundred sonatas. The three presented here display the startling suitability of the saxophone quartet for the music of the Baroque era. The virtuostic figuration characteristic of his harpsichord writing translates perfectly for saxophone, and the contrasting lyrical sonata lends itself beautifully to saxophone bel canto.

DAVID MATTHEWS (b. 1942) is a veteran of the jazz and commercial recording scene, composing and arranging for such luminaries as James Brown, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, and Buddy Rich. His Manhattan Jazz Quintet is one of the leading jazz groups in Japan. Here in its premiere recording, Matthews' "Quartet For Saxophones" features solo and section-style writing that pushes each horn to its technical limits in terms of range, dynamics, and velocity.

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) dedicated his professional life to the tango music of Argentina, his native country. The movements of "Histoire du Tang"o reflect the ever-changing role of this musical form in an evolving society. The work was composed for flute and guitar, and this arrangement for saxophone brings to fruition a project which Piazzolla had launched but was unable to complete in his lifetime.

BOB MINTZER (b. 1953) is an acclaimed composer, saxophonist, improviser, arranger, and bandleader. A charter member of the ASQ, he is best known as a member of the jazz group Yellowjackets. His "Quartet No. 1 In Three Movements," in its premiere recording here, seeks to relate such English pastoral composers as Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams to the more acerbic styles of Stravinsky and Copland, and to overlay the whole with the ostinato and over-the-bar rhythms of jazz. The composer says, "I tried to work in such a way that the lower saxes provide lush harmonies against which the soprano sax has an opportunity to shine and be expressive."