#masato kumoi saxophone quartet

[srijellyfishtempura]

I'm going to go on one of my semi-regular bouts of finding an obscure artist and getting REALLY into them because GUYS

The masato kumoi saxophone quartet!!!!!!

Maybe I just like the repertoire they play but their album Chanson d'autre fois is SO GOOD OMG. Suite hellenique goes SO hard and ryukuan fantasy is genuinely a masterpiece (THANK you yasuhide ito), then you have the three folksongs from toyama prefecture which are so joyful and great????

[fish-want-women-me-fear-me]

There’s been no posts in the classical saxophone tag in like a year so I shall carve it out to be my home. It shall be my saxophone diary. I’m a slut for creston and glazunov and singelee and I’m going to make it the problem of anyone who decides to look this up.

Let’s start with Chansons D’Autre Fois

Japanese saxophonists have such a good ear for rep and the albums they make are so fun. This quartet has excellent sonority, usually going for a less homogenous but still well-blended group sound that adds enough of an edge to really punch out the big moments while making so much out of the soft bits.

Album pour Les Petits Amis is a super simple and charming opener and Far Away is simply beautiful, a perfect ending. Suite hellenique, by the only recently deceased and incredibly talented Pedro itteralde slaps so hard and folds jazz into the classical sound so elegantly, but the absolute highlight of the album is introductions et variations sur une ronde populaire. The variations are super thrilling and creative and the ending is so big and bombastic it makes my cheeks clap. Just slaps ass. French saxophone quartets just have the juice. I’m currently playing the bari part in my uni quartet and playing some of the runs makes me pre.

Y’all should give it a listen