A Musical Feast Returns with “The Two Sides of Sax”

Saxophone and Jazz royalty will descend on the Montante Cultural Center at Canisius University on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 7:30pm when ArtsCanisius and A Musical Feast present “The Two Sides of Sax.”

Long associated with jazz and folk music, the saxophone has a history of great versatility and range that reaches beyond these genres. The first half of the program presents a collection of pieces from the “classical” side of the saxophone repertoire. From the 1700s, a piece called “Duo Sonata” TWV 40:102 by Telemann and Max Bruchs’, “Romanza” from the early 1800s will bookend the presentation of a trio of pieces by Dutch composers of the 2020s. Capping the first half will be a surprise new discovery from the SUNY Fredonia Sigurd Rascher Archive entitled “Satyrs’ Dance” from 1936.

The performers for these pieces are themselves royalty. Sander Beumer and Hans van Ham are Dutch musicians who make up Duo Beumer van Ham. Saxophonist Sander Beumer and pianist Hans van Ham represent the Utrecht Conservatoire and specialize in French saxophone repertoire. Wildy Zumwalt, Professor of Music at SUNY Fredonia who is a scholar of early German saxophone repertoire and his colleague at Fredonia, Elliot Scozzaro, a former
award winner with the Eastman Youth Orchestra in Rochester will round out the first half. Elliot Scozzaro is himself an acclaimed arranger and composer who will be one of the featured players in the second half.

On the “Jazz” side of the saxophone repertoire, the second half of the program will feature free-wheeling improvisation, joining Buffalo native and Shirmer prize winner from Eastman School of Music, Stephen Parisi on bass. In addition to numerous awards, in 2022, Stephen’s noteworthy composition work led to the prestigious award of a Statewide Community Regrant by Arts Services Inc. and the New York State Council on the Arts for the premiere of his project “Sounds of Buffalo: A Series of Compositions and Arrangements for Tentet.”

Rounding out this impressive group of talented musicians is world-renown jazz pianist, George Caldwell. Hailing from Clarksdale, Mississippi, George is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and has played with such jazz luminaries as Clifford Jordan and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. George was featured along with David “Panama” Francis at the legendary Rainbow Room in Manhattan before playing with the Count Basie Orchestra where he shared the bandstand with some of the true greats of the jazz world including Quincy Jones, Roy Hargrove, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie and Cab Calloway.