The 29th Street Saxophone Quartet was an American

saxophone quartet A saxophone quartet is a musical ensemble composed of four saxophones, typically soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. Different saxophone family members are employed to provide a larger range and a variety of tone colours. Other arrangeme ...

. Established in 1982, the ensemble's members included alto saxophonists

Bobby Watson Robert Michael Watson Jr. (born August 23, 1953), known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. Music career Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He ...

and Ed Jackson, tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg (in more recent years, Willie Williams), and baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog. The group has performed an eclectic repertoire, including

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

show tunes A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. T ...

, funk,

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, and original experimental works. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the band toured in Britain, Europe, Turkey, Canada and in the United States.

Critical reception

In an early review of the band's first extended engagement in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1984, John S. Wilson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote, "The ensemble playing is clean, precise and tightly together, but the solos are filled with slashing, exuberant abandon. At times it is the very essence of loose, free jazz but it also uses the heavy, stylized sound of Stan Kenton's saxophone writing. The four musicians are choreographed in shifting formations to spotlight soloists and in dance movements that extend the musical movements." ''

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'' said "the ensemble's cohesiveness and the high quality of solo playing made everything the four men played worthy of note." The group maintained an international presence and recorded several CDs and is still in existence today.

Discography

* ''Pointillistic Groove'' (Osmosis, 1984) * ''Watch Your Step'' (New Note, 1986) * ''The Real Deal'' (New Note, 1987) * ''Live'' (

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

, 1989) * ''Underground'' (

Antilles The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

, 1991) * ''Your Move'' (Antilles, 1992) * ''Milano New York Bridge'' (Red, 1993)

References

American jazz ensembles Musical groups established in 1982 Musical groups disestablished in 1996 Saxophone quartets Hard bop ensembles 1982 establishments in the United States {{US-jazz-band-stub