New Century Saxophone Quartet - Home Grown: Commissinos Volume 1 (1999)

The music featured here is more than a representation of the individual composers; it serves as a historical marker, so to speak, of the musical growth of the New Century Saxophone Quartet. Each recording has been a milestone for us in the evolution of becoming a better chamber music group. While the first recording, Drastic Measures (CCS 5994), was of course our debut CD, it was also an attempt to show that we could play many different periods and styles of music, and to demonstrate that we felt that it was important to be musicians first and saxophonists second who are not to be limited by the instruments we just happened to be playing. The second recording, Main Street USA (CCS 9896), was an answer to many of our followers who wanted us to play some music that they recognized. So we prepared a disc of music of well known American composers: Gershwin, Bernstein, and Gould. To keep it from being too commercial we decided not to just play the tunes in the traditional four part writing (the melody on top, two inner harmony voices, and a bass line) but rather to follow the composers orchestral scores, trying to match different colors and orchestrations. This gave everyone a chance to do things on their instruments that one doent usually hear, like the soprano playing the bass line or the baritone playing the melody throughout a whole piece….