 CURRENT
ISSUE AVANT ISSUE 21 SPRING 2002 |
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editors bit I occasionally fell slightly embarrassed with what may be seen as the over prominence of articles about the saxophone and saxophonist's in Avant. But it cannot be denied the instrument has managed to evolve fantastically well, and has transcended its stranglehold on the world of Jazz, which has been the dominant instrument almost since the inception of the music over one-hundred years ago, (and if you count the clarinet in the same family it really has literally been there from the beginning!). Now of course it has also successfully navigated and implanted its influence onto many other musical genre's, and its quite common to hear a saxophone in a piece of contemporary classical music, as well as popping up in any flavour of the week pop group (to say nothing of its continual major voice for modern jazz and its derivatives). So bearing in mind Avants constant cross border musical pilgrimage perhaps its not so unreasonable after all. Suffice to say we have made this issue a saxophone special having negotiated with Chris Caldwell to supply the free sampler CD for this edition. Chris and his activities are good examples of the cross fertilisation 1 have been talking about. Not only is he a brilliant saxophonist and leader of the outstanding Delta Saxophone Quartet (which gives outstanding concerts of contemporary music all over the world). But he also wears other hats as an agent for saxophone based groups such as the exiting 'I.O'., 'Quintessence','Saxophonic', and the 'Pete Wyman Trio'. A busy session player too, few people know more about what's happening on the scene when it comes to the saxophone, so it seemed perfect to provide a wider embrace of these activities along with other major players such as Peter Br6tzmann,Trevor Watts, Frode Gerjstad, and the U.K.s own brilliant Tommy Smith. |
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this, we celebrate the 60th birthday of Lawrence Casserely, have articles on Vinko
Globakar, Mark Wastell, Steve Martiand, and the brilliant new young pianist Leon Michener.
Steve Day makes his usual enlightening reading (this time on Charlie Parker) and Michael
Tucker has contributed a terrific overview of the bubbling Norwegian contemporary music
scene. We could not finish without at least a little inclusion about the developments of
sound sculpture (the established Echo City and the intriguing sound recordings of Scott
Smallwood) and it was a privilege also to include a small review of Akio Suzuki's visit to
London recently, an amazing man!! We hope you enjoy this issue. |
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