{"id":26227,"date":"2011-07-03T10:41:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T17:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=26227"},"modified":"2024-05-25T18:06:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T01:06:10","slug":"colin-stetson-a-bass-saxophonist-who-will-challenge-what-you-believe-is-the-very-nature-of-saxophones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2011\/colin-stetson-a-bass-saxophonist-who-will-challenge-what-you-believe-is-the-very-nature-of-saxophones\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Stetson: A Bass Saxophonist Who Will Challenge What You Believe Is The Very Nature Of Saxophones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saxophones are monophonic instruments, right? Or so we’ve been led to believe.<\/p>\n

As long as we’ve been playing, our instructors have taught us that saxophones play 1 note at a time. Sure, they are capable of performing multiphonics, but for the most part, it is not a technique that 90%+ (I’m totally guessing here, but that’s based on the performers I’ve worked with) of players use. And those who do use the technique, use it as an effect, or for certain notes only.<\/p>\n

Enter Colin Stetson<\/a>: a man who yesterday literally changed the way I think about saxophones, and what they are capable of.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     Source: colinstetson.com<\/h6>\n

Sure I play bass sax. Sure I use a lot of effects\u2014including multiphonics\u2014in my playing. But after listening to Stetson play, I feel like I’m back in preschool again when it comes to this stuff.<\/p>\n

Vancouver is currently hosting its annual, International Jazz Festival. Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear a 1 hour solo performance by Colin Stetson at the Round House Performance Centre. It blew my f#!*ing mind. Seriously it did.<\/p>\n

In February of this year Stetson released a new album titled, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges. <\/em>At yesterday’s jazz festival performance, he performed a number of tracks from this album on bass and alto saxophones.<\/p>\n

Before you listen to this, you should know that this recording\u2014just like the performance I saw yesterday\u2014was done with no overdubs or loops. Yes, he is playing everything you hear simultaneously through his bass saxophone.<\/strong> (The only exception is Laurie Anderson’s spoken part at the end of the recording, which was obviously not present yesterday when he performed this piece live.)<\/p>\n

According to his label, Constellation Records<\/a>, Stetson:<\/p>\n

combine[s] a mastery of circular breathing technique with percussive valve-work and reed vocalisations, making a polyphonic solo music that combines [diverse] influences…Stetson is able to weave an uninterrupted flow of arpeggiated swirls and chordal progressions while simultaneously singing yearning melodic lines through the reed of his horn \u2013 a technically powerful combination, exponentially intensified by Colin’s innate sense of pace, phrasing and trajectory.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n