Matthew Evan Taylor creates music for layers of saxophone, Lea Bertucci uses an empty grain silo for layers of processed alto sax, and Viet Cuong writes glides and slides in a two-part work for PRISM Sax Quartet.
Composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor is in his own words,
“a musician who composes; a composer who performs; a performer who improvises. I am all of these things and more. The Unheard Mixtapes are my manifesto.”
Now an Assistant Professor of Music in Vermont, he’s a southern kid, whose musical experience runs the gamut from playing sax in a jazz way, to keyboards in a popular rock band, to composing, looping, and improvising music. Hear his “Serenade for Earnestine” (named for his Grandmamá) from the fourth of five in his series of Unheard MixTapes (2020), commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble, which he describes as “Spontaneous,” “Flexible,” and “Intentional.” (Composer’s statement)
Sax player Travis LaPlante, who is a composer and member of sax band Battle Trance, also merges composition and improvisation for Inner Garden together with the group Yarn/Wire. Together, the two pianists, two percussionists, and LaPlante playing tenor saxophone, collaborated on and created the three movement work’s sound world through deep connectivity and intuition.
Then, listen as sound artist, sax player, and composer Lea Bertucci activates a cavernous derelict concrete structure -a grain silo in Buffalo, NY- with music from her alto sax. On her piece “Warp and Weft,” she also augments her sax with processing and delay, creating microtonal effects and something that almost sounds like bagpipes amplified against a playground under the BQE. Also, from the Philadelphia-based saxophone quartet, PRISM, listen to a sliding, gliding dirge-like piece by American composer Viet Cuong, “Mother's Monster,” from his two-part work, Prized Possessions. -Caryn Havlik
#4451, Music by Sax Player/Composers (Mostly) (First Aired 1/22/2021)
ARTIST: Travis LaPlante & Yarn/Wire
WORK: Inner Garden I [1:20]
RECORDING: Inner Garden
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: travislaplante.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Matthew Evan Taylor
WORK: Serenade for Earnestine [9:14]
RECORDING: The Unheard Mixtape 4: Isolation Blues
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: matthewevantaylor.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Travis LaPlante & Yarn/Wire
WORK: Inner Garden I [13:02]
RECORDING: Inner Garden
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: travislaplante.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Lea Bertucci
WORK: Warp and Weft [12:53]
RECORDING: Resonant Field
SOURCE: NNA Tapes
INFO: leabertucci.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Prism Quartet
WORK: Viet Cuong: Prized Possessions - I. Mother's Monster [6:19]
RECORDING: Surfaces and Essences
SOURCE: XAS Records
INFO: prismquartet.com
ARTIST: Prism Quartet & So Percussion
WORK: Steve Mackey: Blue Notes and Other Clashes 1- Prismatic Fantasy [4:09]
RECORDING: Color Theory
SOURCE: XAS Records 102
INFO: prismquartet.com
See some of "Inner Garden" from an online presentation by Yarn/Wire with Travis LaPlante: