Beth Schenck - Above and Below (2022) Hi-Res

During the winter months of 2020-2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic tore through the world around her, saxophonist and composer Beth Schenck carved out space to write and record her first solo album, Above and Below.

Responding to the upheaval outside her doors through her music, Schenck has produced deeply explorative music that reverberates beyond the circumstances of its creation. Here is a solo artist deeply engaging in her craft to process— perhaps even heal— this collective trauma. The result is a work that deftly communicates timeless, and timely, dualities, as its title suggests: It is above and below, immersive and intimate, personal and universal, all at once.

With Above and Below, Schenck’s straightforward tools— an alto saxophone and two microphones— transcend the ordinary, capturing and conveying an intricate collage of tone, feeling, and history: Old memories of hymns and her father’s sermons, the spiritual immediacy of nature as ocean buoys become church bells, childhood and motherhood, past and present, heaven and hell.

Above and Below confirms Schenck’s unique presence as a sophisticated and insightful artist, lending musical voice to themes of hope, resistance, and resilience. She has captured the contradictions of this moment— of being alone together, in hope and despair— with complexity and authenticity.

Beth Schenck is a saxophonist, composer and educator who has worked throughout the United States and abroad. Based in San Francisco, Beth has performed frequently in the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco jazz and chamber music scenes. Her main outlet as a composer-performer is with her own bands but she has also had opportunities to perform with Henry Threadgill, Jim Black, Cory Smythe, Jenny Scheinman, Max Weinberg and countless others. As a composer, Beth has written music for the Silla Festival (Korea), Sunset Jazz Festival (Japan), Women’s Work Festival (New York City), Outsound Music Summit (SF) and schools in New York City and Los Angeles. In 2010, Beth released her debut record, "What Shock Heard," which has been described by critics as "frank and beautiful”,“reliably enthralling” and “transporting.”