Steve Gray Archive

“Dragon” – Works for alto sax & sax quartet – Albany / DANIEL SMITH: Jazz Suite for Bassoon – Summit

by Audiophile Audition | Oct 20, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

A nice classical-jazz couple of CDs featuring bassoon & sax. “Dragon” – Works for alto sax & sax quartet [TrackList follows] – William Perconti, alto sax/ Alloy Sax Quartet – Albany TROY1440, 49:25 ****:  DANIEL SMITH: “Jazz Suite for Bassoon” [TrackList follows] – Daniel Smith, bassoon/ Bruce Boardman & Steve Grey, p./others/ The Caravaggio Ensemble – Summit DCD 656, 40:37 ****: These works represent traditional Western classical music combined with jazz, pop, folk music, and even Asian and African music. The Alloy Saxophone Quartet was formed in order to explore contemporary music, Perconti is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and the U. of Iowa. He is currently on the faculty of Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho. There are eight separate works on the disc, by composers such as Rzewski, Joan Tower, Allen Blank, Hilary Tann and Joseph Martin Waters. Four works by Frederic Rzewski are performed: They consist of his various Spots.  The Allan Blank work is titled Contrasts, and consists of give separate numbered movements. The combination of sax and sax quartet seems to be much more to the point than that of sax and piano. Smith is allegedly the most-recorded bassoonist in the […]