Lunar Saxophone Quartet
Joel Garthwaite – soprano saxophone
Hannah Riches – alto saxophone
Lewis Evans – tenor saxophone
Lauren Hamer – baritone saxophone
In June 2007 the Lunar Saxophone Quartet commissioned Dave Stapleton to write a long work for four saxophones and piano. As the work progressed, it became clear that doing it justice required a greater number of voices to allow its rich and glorious colours and tones to emerge. The answer was simple – a full Jazz rhythm section using Stapleton’s regular musical partners bassist Paula Gardiner and drummer Elliot Bennett with the addition of trumpeter Neil Yates. Catching Sunlight is the result.
“…pieces rank among the best performances I’ve heard all year”. Independent on Sunday
“His compositional building blocks, repeated ostinati, short motifs that shift through registers and keys, and choppy phrasing alternated with smoother melodic or freely improvised sections, remain the basis of his technique, but the structures are tighter and his playing more deftly controlled than on his earlier recordings”. Alyn Shipton – Piano Magazine
“Rich and colourful music from one of the UK’s most talented and ambitious young jazz composers”. The Jazz Mann
“Stapleton’s writing mostly revolves around propulsive piano vamps with nods to Gil/Miles circa Sketches of Spain”. Jazzwise
“Here is some of the best new jazz around, both in conception and writing and its performance is exquisite. It really is brilliant”. Cardiff Jazz Scoiety CD Reviews
“..rich and colourful, the LSQ provide harmonic ’thickening’ to the ensemble sound as well as the odd sonorous, graceful solo (Joel Garthwaite’s soprano particularly ear-catching, with its almost oboe-like purity and elegance), and Yates [is] compelling, vibrant and agile throughout. It is Stapleton’s compositional skill, however, that immediately impresses, not only for its emotional range, but also for the variety of subtle and vigorous rhythms he utilises in the creation of this thoroughly enjoyable, intelligent but lively suite of pieces”. Vortex Jazz CD Review
Formed in 2005, the Lunar Saxophone Quartet aim to bring New Music to the widest possible audience without pandering or patronising. Their standards are exacting and they only commission the best. Their next CD FLUX released on Delphian Records will feature new works by Graham Fitkin, Andrew Poppy, Michael Nyman and Gabriel Jackson.
- Release of Catching Sunlight
- Touring as a quartet and with Catching Sunlight Octet
18th Nov 08 – with DS (Catching Sunlight) - Demspeys, Cardiff
