America's Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax
Volume II

Arizona University Recordings Contemporary Composer and Performer Series America's Millennium Tribute to ADOLPHE SAX, Volume II with special guest artist Eugene Rousseau AUR CD 3068 $16.95 (includes free shipping in the US) EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Postal Rates for out of the USA Shipping (Overseas and Canada/ Mexico) have almost tripled. We apologize, but we must charge $12 to ship CDs out of the USA. The most cost effective solution for you would be to order more than one CD because the shipping cost for 1 - 4 CDs will be exactly the same: $12USD. As before, you will be sent a separate PayPay request for the shipping cost after you order your CD(s). If you have any questions, please contact Arlette Dumont-Penn at arlette@aurec.com -- We THANK YOU very much for your understanding and for your support of AUR.

The ubiquity of the saxophone is a phenomenon that at first glance heralds back to the 1920s. Musicians have always been attracted to its unique voice and infinitely varied expression, and the saxophone is heard today in every musical venue, from symphony orchestras to jazz clubs, rock bands to movie soundtracks, chamber works to television commercials. Its alluring and evocative visual form has made it one the most popular cultural icons, used by organizations and advertisers to appeal to sophisticates and those coveting a more cosmopolitan disposition.

The saxophone craze of the 1920s was not an isolated event, but the explosive culmination of a gradual popularity that has its roots in 19th century America. The national introduction of the instrument into this country began in the 1870s with Gilmore’s band, a professional wind group that toured the country. Edward A. Lefebre, the celebrated virtuoso of the 19th century, was a member of this band, and his activities as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician fueled the emerging popularity of the instrument. Lefebre had met Adolphe Sax in Paris, and quickly became a performing advocate of the instrument on three continents. His career in the United States, where he performed for literally tens of thousands of people, lasted from 1871 - 1911. The saxophone quickly caught on, and by the 1890s, Conn and Buescher began making the first saxophones in the United States. These early instruments - soprano, alto, tenor and baritone - were based on original Adolphe Sax instruments brought over by the European virtuosos of the time, including Lefebre. By 1900 amateurs and professionals alike were appreciating its many musical qualities and relative ease of learning. The saxophone began to be played in town bands, churches, family gatherings, civic affairs and a multitude of entertainment venues.

With the advent of the saxophone quartet and large saxophone ensembles (soprano to bass) playing the latest popular music, there seemed to be a size and a part for an enthusiast of any experience. The exciting virtuosos, including Coffin, Henton, Moermans and Wiedoeft in the first two decades of this century, added another startling dimension. Their performances and early cylinder and disk recordings caused a sensation: titillating the listener with unheard-of pyrotechnics, entertaining the public with comic, popular and sentimental music of the times, and engaging the romantic with a swooning, voice-like rendering of instrumental and vocal favorites. The saxophone had certainly arrived, and by the middle 1910s the manufacturers responded by offering a complete set of saxophones, including the Eb sopranino, C and Bb sopranos (curved and straight), Eb alto, C and Bb tenors (the tenor in C called the "C-Melody"), Eb baritone and Bb Bass. The Eb Contrabass was not made in this country Contrabasses in the United States at this time were imported from Evette-Schaeffer of Paris.

The post World War I boom of the Roaring Twenties found the saxophone right in the middle of this decade-long victory celebration. It perfectly symbolized this era of prosperity and personal freedom. The emerging popularity of Jazz (to which the instrument was a relative latecomer) further inflamed the hue and cry for the saxophone to a veritable craze, the momentum still continuing today. This was a time of unbridled optimism and opportunity. The new prosperity of America and the popularity of the saxophone fused into a defining era that continuously re-invented the role for the instrument. It was used in every conceivable musical and cultural outlet, and when one did not exist, the instrument companies made it up.

Although the "Sax Craze" ended with the Great Depression, the saxophone had established itself as THE instrumental voice for American music-making. Of course, American music of the Depression-era 1930s was far more reflective and sobering than the music of the unflappable 1920s. Musical tastes were abruptly transformed with the rapid change in technology and society. The decline of Vaudeville, the powerful emergence of radio, movies with sound, the ascendancy of Jazz, and later the development of television fundamentally affected the average American, and would define what type of music was offered and played.

In the 1930s, the emphasis had shifted to a more utilitarian, but no less glorified, role for the saxophone. Gone were the sopraninos, sopranos, C-Melodies and bass saxophones. They were replaced with a literally glittering array of sweet, hot and powerful altos, tenors and baritones, all perfectly suited to the new music of the 1930s and 1940s.

The popularity of the saxophone continues unabated today as the saxophone is entering a second Golden Age. There is an increased awareness and interest in the full capabilities of the horn that intertwines its colorful past with new and varied roles. Older instruments with different tonal and design characteristics are once again being accepted and played in contemporary settings. An awareness of the classical saxophone and its different timbre requirements (compared to its Jazz and rock relatives) has given new meaning to the saxophone for players and listeners, and new life to an era of instruments long since dismissed. A revived fascination with the sopranino and contrabass, along with a new interest in the saxophone choir and early original repertoire, have helped to keep the saxophone at the forefront of contemporary music making.

The music on this recording - from the contemporary and evocative Wings, the hard driving jazz-influenced Muczynski Sonata, the traditional but brilliant Prélude, Cadence et Finale, the haunting and expansively lyric Notturno, and the powerful, austere Karlins Music for Alto Saxophone - serves as eloquent testimony to the varied musical roles that exist today for the saxophone. The diversity of style and expression is astonishing, the saxophone resplendent in each setting, its role now secure in the music-making of the next millennium.

—Notes by Dr. Paul Cohen

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