Delta Saxophone Quartet
Centro Zo, Catania, Italy
Jan. 19, 2007
If
I’m not mistaken, the UK line-up called Delta Saxophone Quartet had already
played in my town (at least) a couple of times, but for one reason or another
I had never had the opportunity to catch them live. And so I decide that
the time is right to see the group. Just when I’m about to buy my ticket
(sitting accommodation, one can reserve one’s seat) chance gives me a nice
surprise: one of my favourite musicians ever, Hugh Hopper, will be the
very special guest at the concert. Wow!
A
flyer I will only read at the end of the concert says that a new CD by
the Delta Saxophone Quartet playing music by Soft Machine (the historic,
innovative UK line-up of which Hugh Hopper was one of the most representative
members) will be released soon; side-by-side with new arrangements of some
of the group’s classic compositions, some music by contemporary European
composers. The flyer also informs us that during the summer of 1984, while
the last line-up of Soft Machine was splitting up, the Delta Saxophone
Quartet played music by "experimental composers" such as David
Bedford, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Terry Riley.
The
concert program confirms Hopper’s presence, and also adds the name of Steve
Martland. Which Soft Machine compositions will be performed it’s not said,
and the same is true for the names of the "contemporary European composers" whose
compositions the Delta Saxophone Quartet will perform, but just a little
while later Hopper will considerably cool my enthusiasm for the fact that
I’ll be able to see him play live by telling me that he’ll only play on
Facelift, the number that will be performed last; from Soft Machine’s better
days, Kings And Queens and Mousetrap will be performed. Since the Delta
Saxophone Quartet have just completed a workshop at the local music school,
a few pieces featuring some musicians who have attended said workshop will
be performed (in fact, among the people who are crowding the hall to its
maximum capacity (= about 250) I see their friends and parents). While
walking near the stage, trying to read the brand of the fuzz pedal Hopper
will use on Facelift, I pass in front of some sheet music bearing the title
Minuetto della tosse (The Coughing Minuet, more or less).
After
the introduction, it’s a local line-up – called Glogassonic Band – that
starts the concert, performing a composition by Joe Schittino called…
Minuetto della tosse. The group is well coordinated, and quite professional
sounding, but the
"idea" of the piece (minuet + coughing) gets tired real soon, leaving
me with a sense of puzzlement. Provided I understood correctly, the minuet
is followed by another composition by the same author: performed by the Delta
Saxophone Quartet, with Martland as a speaking voice, we have Adventures
In Quartet. The composition has a very simple, almost didactic, development;
the main point being that, every few bars, the music alternates with spoken
interludes by Martland, who slowly narrates in good Italian a weird story
whose culminating point sounds like this: "un maggo chièsse a la raggaza
se pre-fferiva 1) ritrovvare i’suo fi-ddanzato opure 2) trovvare l’uòmmo
con l’ucèlo più grosso de’mondo; la raggaza scesse la seconda senn-za esitazzione" (it’s
just a double entendre which uses the italian word "uccello" in
its similarity of meaning with "cock" as – ahem… – comic material).
I look down at my shoes, trying in vain to find the answer to the multitude
of questions crowding my mind. Provided I understood correctly, the last
piece of the first part is Freedom by Anzalone: a strange sort of "conducted
jam" for many instrumentalists, with no personality nor direction.
Then
we have the second part of the concert. The performance of the highly celebrated
Kings And Queens is a good example of what’s wrong with the whole thing:
we have only a tiny trace of the original piece, with only that famous
bass part reminding us of the composition; from an instrumental point of
view, the quartet works like a charm, but it’s the arrangement (by…?)
which adds useless stuff while masking what’s essential. For the same reason,
I feel let down by Mousetrap, while the later-period Floating World, composed
by Karl Jenkins, is better. Other pieces are performed; among them, a composition
by a German musician whose name I didn’t catch is quite good from a performing
point of view, with an agile soprano sax and an intelligent and versatile
baritone sax, but the piece sounds like a regurgitation of some of the
more rhythmic climates Anthony Braxton performed with his quartet (at least)
twenty years ago.
The
concert goes on without presenting something of real interest up to the
point when Hopper straps on his electric bass to perform Facelift. It sounds
like the room is about to explode, while the enthusiasm on the part of
the audience (enthusiasm? well, it’s more like a sense of amazement and
wonder) is there to see. "What the heck!" – I feel like saying
– "why not have him play all night instead of having those horrors
and that lukewarm, insipid stuff?" It’s not that I believe Hopper’s
compositions necessarily need his instrumental presence in order to work,
but tonight it’s like this. I wonder about the CD (but after attending
this concert, listening to it will be quite low on my list of priorities).
We have an encore: they play again the theme to Facelift, with a brief,
concentrated solo by Hopper. Then it’s time to go home.
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2007
CloudsandClocks.net | Feb. 12, 2007
