Bass Saxophone

The bass saxophone is pitched in Bb, and ranges down to the Ab (concert pitch) below the bass clef. The largest commonly encountered saxophone, it is situated between the very rare Eb contrabass saxophone, and the more common Eb baritone sax.

• Adrian Rollini "Bouncin' In Rhythm" (). This CD is a collection of Rollini's work on the bass sax, vibraphone, piano, and hot fountain pen. One of the early jazz masters of the instrument
• Everything by the Nuclear Whales . With few exceptions, the bass sax always has a prominent role.
• Saxemble "Saxemble" (Quest Records, 9 46181-2, 1996). This is all sax and drums, sort of a "Nuclear Whales" meets "World Saxophone Quartet" in style. The musicians are James Carter (alto and bari), Frank Lowe (tenor), Michael Marcus (manzello, bass sax), Cassius Richmond (alto), and Cindy Blackman (drums), with Alex Harding (bari) and Bobby LaVell (tenor). There is lots of bass sax, prominently displayed, on this CD.
• Spencer Clark: "Sweet & Hot" (Audiophile AP-131 (LP)) This is the one of only 2 Jazz recordings I know of dedicated to Bass Sax. The performer was a devotee of Adrian Rollini, the famous Dixieland Bass Saxophonist who played with Red Nicholls, Joe Venuti, Fred Elizalde and others. This LP tends towards slower numbers and the Sax sound is mellow (almost like a tenor in some ways) and clear. Quite a nice LP.
• Bill Laswell & Peter Brötzman: "Low Life" (Jimco, JICK 89060) or (Celluloid, CELD 5016) (CD). On this Bill Laswell plays electric basses and Peter Brötzmann plays a Conn bass saxophone throughout. The style is free jazz and the sound is very raw, loud, poweful and disturbing. The saxophone may be clearly heard, but it is often overblown, uses growlings, shrieks, split notes so if you want to hear 'straight' bass sax this is not for you. On the whole though it's pretty strong stuff and recommended.
• "Anubis" by Gerard Grisey for unaccompanied bass saxophone, played by Claude Delangle on a CD of Music by Gerard Grisey.  The CD is on the Accord label number Accord 201952.  The piece uses some extended techniques (multiphonics, tongue slaps) but shows off the sound of the instrument well.  It lasts about 7 minutes.
• Scott Robinson, "Thinking Big" (1997, Arbors Records, ARCD 19179).  Nice jazz, backed by piano, guitar, drums, trombone, and trumpet.  Scott Robinson plays most of the saxophone family on this, including a lot of bass and contrabass sax (also soprano, alto, C melody, tenor, bari; theremin; Eb contrabass sarrusophone; clarinet, and bass clarinet).  He uses contrabass sax on "Ko-Ko" (Duke Ellington) and "Basso Profundo" (Duke Ellington), and bass sax on "Sleepy Time Gal", "Oh! Sister, Ain't That Hot!", "It's Magic", and "Stompin' at the Savoy".  In addition to the great old jazz, the CD insert includes a number of pictures of SR with the contrabass sax, one of which also shows the bass sax, and another which shows bass, contrabass, and contrabass sarrusophone together.  Recommended!
• Marty Grosz & Keith Ingham, "Going Hollywood" (1997, Stomp Off Records, CD 1323).  Over an hour's worth of jazz from the 1920's and 30's, including Scott Robinson on bass sax on a number of tracks, and Eb contrabass sarrusophone on one ("I Like To Do Things For You").  The disc is fun to listen to, and Scott's solos (also on clarinet and other saxes) are perfectly in character. Can't hide bass sax or sarrusophone in a small ensemble ;-)
• Kientzy, "Pur-Sax" (1996 nova-musica, NMCD5103).  This is a very modern/experimental CD, including saxophones from sopranino to contrabass.  The CD is 100% saxophone, with lots of overdubbing.  Tracks include Musique spectrale (Calin Ioachimescu) [SAB + 4Sn/1S/1A/1T/2B/2Bs/2CB]; Vagues, ondes, contours (Horia Surianu) [A + 5A]; Rimes pour la révelation du temps (Tiberiu Olah) [A + 8A]; La colline bleue (Costin Miereanu) [8T]; Mi-ha-sefer (Aldo Brizzi) [46Sn/36S/37T/34Bs]; and Tempi dell mente (Giuseppe Giuliano) [S + 5S/5A/5Sn].
• Roscoe Mitchell "Four Compositions" (1987, Lovely Music Ltd., LCD2021).  This CD is mainly avant-garde classical, all composed by Roscoe Mitchell.  It includes one track ("Prelude") which is a quartet for voice, bass saxophone, contrabass sarrusophone, and triple contrabass viol.  The liner notes include a picture of the quartet on stage.
• "circular logic" by Steve Adams and Vinny Golia (9winds, NWCD0203). Steve Adams plays C/alto/bass flutes and sopranino through bari saxophones, while VG plays sopranino/bari/bass saxes, english horn, bassoon, picc/C/alto/bass flutes, and Eb/Bb/A/alto/bass/contralto/contrabass clarinets.  The tracks are listed on the back along with a chart of who plays what on which track.  A lot of creative interplay, in a free jazz improvisational style.
• Adam Gilberti's "Genesis Concert" CD includes bass sax on "Reflections of Honor" and "Violin Concerto". Other instruments featured on the CD (actually a 2 CD set) include contrabass flute, contrabass and contra-alto clarinet, contrabassoon, serpent, contrabass sax, and Bb subcontrabass tubax. See http://www.genesisconcert.com to order the CD.

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