Joseph Skvorecky, the Czech writer played bass saxophone as a youth in a band called ‘Red Music’ during the Nazi ‘Protectorate’ of Bohemia and Moravia. Living as a teenager in a world of constant paranoia and tyranny filled with the unholy reek of boot polish and the clang of iron bars, he writes in his semi-autobiographical novel, ‘The Bass Saxophone’, of the saxophone’s ‘cruel, beautiful, infinitely sad sound… muted desolation. A fuzzy hybrid tone, an acoustical alloy of some non-existent bass cello and bass oboe, but more nerve shattering…’ His description of it grows to almost comically erotic proportions but it remains a manifesto, I think if you will, of the saxophone and its body politic: sanscullotte rebellion, sex, freedom... But yes don’t mention Kenny G. Or Conan the Barbarian (Does anyone remember Tina Turner’s hulking neanderthal sax player?)

Of course, sax players today are most at home with tango, Brazilian, funk, Cuban, samba and the cerebral intricacies of jazz improvisation. It thrives on an ebullient mash up of sound and style. Debussy, Ravel and Schoenberg all wrote for the sax as did Shostakovitch, but ‘pure jazz’ and its sonic sophistries are as fetishized by their acolytes as much as Wagner’s ‘total art’ is fetishized by his.

Anyhoo, to the point post haste. ‘City Bells’ are a dynamic saxophone quartet comprising soprano, alto, tenor and baritone. All they were missing was a 7ft contrabass - the Moby Dick of the saxophone – I’ve heard rumours about such an instrument from Ahab-like creatures plumbing the sonic deep!

'City Bells' invited me to their first recital at the Debeauvoir Church in Hackney. As a group they wear their influences and their talents lightly: combining neo-classical elements with jazz, Brazilian, tango, funk etc. Some also play with London Funk bands ‘Buzzard Lope’ and the beautifully-named ‘Gefunkt’. Chez Taylor is also a composer. You can hear interesting samples of her work here: ...

The programme comprised the usual suspects: ‘Small Dream of a Dance’ written to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s release, full of shifting African tribal rhythms and a hymn-like sense of Zulu choral music, saxes mimicking the drum patterns and marimbas to nice effect. The Astor Piazzolla piece moved us back to pre-dictatorship Buenos Aires and the languid evolution of the tango and its velvety veneers snaking through smoke and mirrors. Then there were the ghostly beautiful echoes of Gershwin’s undulating Piano Preludes as if piped straight out the Roosevelt Hotel in 1926. Horovitz’s 1974 ‘Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini’ was probably the least interesting one for me.

But it was a good programme which gave them the scope to demonstrate their technical adroitness. The soft church acoustics accentuated the melodic sophistication and harmonic interests underpinned by the power of the big bellied bass line with the deep soulful phrasing of Roger Illingworth, who looked a bit like a more soulful Che Guevara. The baritone sax has a rounder darker timbre than its higher registered contemporaries – but again one wondered what it would have sounded like on the 7 feet contrabass which goes deeper than a sperm whale and needs its own zoning permit.

The incandescent flurries of top notes flew off like sparks from the soprano sax of the light-fingered Jenny Hird whose technical mastery and poise were impressive.

Having sat through a week’s worth of rehearsals of 20 Vienna horn players burping hot metal through the Bruckner 7 and the New World, it was nice to re-enter the modulations of the twentieth century, though through the reed of the saxophone, the whole thing, sounds as nostalgic for lost worlds as the scratchy needle of a phonograph. Oh and there was some blasted person ringing the church door bell which translated into the knave as an electronic ring tone of Fur Elise. I mean really!


‘City Bells’ are available for hire as a band to prop up a garden party or a front room or a wedding or indeed any social gathering. They would provide a very pleasing and picturesque alternative to the string ensemble and unlike horn players they don’t drool on the floor.

Website, sound samples and contact info here: ...