After mostly listening to the music of Philip Glass over the last month and then last week watching the documentary on the composer by Peter Greenaway, tonight I found something new and different from that Glass-ian onslaught.
I sat down to listen to my new emusic downloads and was quite astonished with Chris Theofanidas' Netherland, as played by saxophonist Brian Sacawa on his new American Voices album. The piano was refreshingly crisp and the sax satisfyingly human.
(I don't want to diminish Jon Gibson's saxophone work over the years with Philip Glass but I do think circular breathing is unnatural, albeit sometimes necessary.)
From the American Voices page of the ionova web site, a quote from Brian:
“I’m looking for the...kind of stuff that makes you get goosebumps and want to scream, ‘Yes!’ “
Sacawa...has focused on getting his instrument out of the sand trap it often finds itself in by selecting work by living American composers who reach a broad audience base.
- brian sacawa: 2005 blog posts mentioning the recording
