The Tiptons Sax Quartet, previously known as The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet, is a jazz saxophone quartet from Seattle, Washington. The ensemble consists of five members (the fifth member being the quartet's drummer and percussionist). The Tiptons are an internationally renowned saxophone quartet with drums, celebrating over 30 years as a band. Amy Denio (alto sax, clarinet, voice) is joined by co-leader Jessica Lurie (soprano/alto/tenor sax, voice), Sue Orfield (tenor sax, voice), Tina Richerson (baritone sax, voice) and Robert Kainar (drums, percussion) from Salzburg, Austria. The Tiptons' material ranges from micro-Big Band to Gospel, Bluegrass to Balkan, whimsical Chamber Jazz, and nocturnal Funk to Free Jazz Improvisation using saxophones, clarinet, their voices, drums, and inventive percussion to create a genre-busting ‘world soul’ sound. The band takes its name in honor of Billy Tipton, a 20th-century professional saxophonist and transgender man who upon his death was revealed to have been assigned female at birth. [1]
“… More than 30 years along, the Tiptons Saxophone Quartet and Drums are sounding better than ever. Inspired by countless memorable collaborations with musicians from around the world, this group is setting a high bar for arrangements and compositions featuring multiple horns. Their powerful, confident sound combines jazz and classical music with funk and folk music from the broad reach of humanity.”Abe Beeson, KNKX Seattle Public Radio
“... Entrancing beats with luscious tones and harmony stacks big enough to climb.” All About Jazz
"The Tiptons blow up a mess of Balkan, Second Line, and carnivalesque lines, joyful, wry, and well-traveled … a hard blowing, rhythm-driven bunch of reeds." The Seattle Stranger
With Wayne Horvitz
In music, a quartet is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers.
The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭, smaller than the B♭ tenor but larger than the B♭ soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, pep bands, carnatic music, and jazz.
Amy Denio is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Her inspirations include world music, and is mainly known as a vocalist, accordionist and saxophone-player. Among her current musical involvements are The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Die Resonanz Stanonczi, a radical folk group based in Salzburg, Austria. She has also collaborated repeatedly with the Pat Graney Dance Company, David Dorfman Dance Company, Victoria Marks, and with many other choreographers.
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".
The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger than the tenor saxophone, but smaller than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use — the bass, contrabass and subcontrabass saxophones are relatively uncommon. Like all saxophones, it is a single-reed instrument. It is commonly used in concert bands, chamber music, military bands, big bands, and jazz combos. It can also be found in other ensembles such as rock bands and marching bands. Modern baritone saxophones are pitched in E♭.
Walter Sinclair Hartley was an American composer of contemporary classical music.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Jessica Lurie is an American composer, performance artist and woodwind player, originally hailing from Seattle and now living in Brooklyn, New York.
The Michael Nyman Songbook is a collection of art songs by Michael Nyman based on texts by Paul Celan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Shakespeare and Arthur Rimbaud. It was recorded as an album with Ute Lemper in 1991, and again as a concert film in 1992, under the direction of Volker Schlöndorff, again with Ute Lemper, though many of the musicians had changed. The songs have been recorded by others and as instrumentals, and are published by Chester Music. The album has been issued by both London Records and Argo Records, though the covers are the same except for the logo.
Albert Ronald Ross was a British jazz baritone saxophonist.
After Extra Time is a 1996 album by Michael Nyman with the Michael Nyman Band containing three tributes to Nyman's fandom of Association football: After Extra Time, the soundtrack to The Final Score, and Memorial. The latter is described as a remix, but is simply the 1992 recording from The Essential Michael Nyman Band. It was included in order to put it together with his two other football-inspired works. The album lists only three tracks, which has caused it to be erroneously reported that Memorial is track 3 and the others are all hidden tracks, but Memorial is track 26. Therefore, a track listing, as the individual portions of the pieces are not named, is not useful. The three pieces were recorded at separate times and thus have separate personnel lists.
Dr. Music was a Toronto jazz group founded in 1969 by producer, arranger and performer Doug Riley. The band recorded three albums and toured across Canada. The personnel of the band changed throughout its history, with Riley remaining at the core of the group.
Rhythm and Blues is an album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released on the Elektra label. The album features performances by Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and David Murray and was first released in 1989.
Elie Apper is a Belgian classical saxophonist who is well known as a former member of the Saxophone Quartet of Belgium. The quartet was founded in 1953 and made its American debut December 9, 1970, in Fort Worth with the Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth. The Quartet was founded by Francois Daneels, who was a professor of saxophone at the Brussels Conservatory.
Miss Ann is an album by American keyboardist and composer Wayne Horvitz' band Pigpen recorded in 1993 and released on the independent Tim/Kerr label on October 17, 1995.
Howard J. Buss is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Buss’ works include instrumental solos, chamber music, symphonic, choral, and band works. His music has received awards, including from the 2011 Lieksa Brass Week Composition Competition in Finland, the 2015 American Trombone Workshop National Composition Competition, the National Flute Association’s Newly-Published Music Competition, the Erik Satie Mostly Tonal Award, State of Florida Fellowships, ASCAP Plus Awards., and The American Prize.
Hallelujah, Anyway – Remembering Tom Cora is a 1999 double-CD compilation album by various artists dedicated to United States cellist and composer Tom Cora, who had died on April 9, 1998. It includes material composed in Cora's memory, songs he had written for other musicians and groups, and a selection of music he had performed and participated in. It was released in May 1999 by John Zorn's Tzadik Records.
All Blues is an album by the GRP All-Star Big Band that won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance in 1996.