Andy Scott

November seems a long time ago now when I attended the British Composer Awards 2006 and was fortunate enough to win the Wind Band and Brass Band catagory with my Two Saxophone Concerto ‘Dark Rain’. It was a great honour to be part of this event, thanks again go to Tim Redpath, John Harle, Rob Buckland, Dave Chatterton & Chethams School of Music, Jim Gourlay, Charles Hine & all the members of the Basbwe College Consortium Trust, all of whom enabled this piece to be realised.

The piece of music that I composed the week after this event was called ‘Whisper Goodbye’ and is scored for soprano saxophone and piano. I wrote it especially for Gwilym Simcock & my great friend Rob Buckland. Gwilym played with SaxAssault in 2005 and is an outstanding musician, in fact the first jazz musician to be a ‘BBC Next Generation Artist’. I really wanted him to be a part of the new SaxAssault Cd ‘Sax of Gold’, so ‘Whisper Goodbye’ is the final track on the CD. The level of musicianship from Gwilym & Rob is outstanding.

‘Sax of Gold’ is SaxAssault’s second CD was released on March 1st, and we embark on a UK Tour very soon. Please take a look at the new web site www.saxassault.com

I’m so proud to work with the brilliant musicians in SaxAssault – Tim & Rob I’ve worked with in the Apollo Quartet since 1985, Simon Willescroft on alto is currently playing with Duran Duran, Jim Muirhead moves between the Halle Orchestra & SaxAssault with consummate ease such is his versatility and musicianship, John ‘Supertramp’ Helliwell is featured on ‘Lord Stackhouse’, Andy Morel & Jim Fieldhouse nail down that low end of the band, whilst Mike Hall contributes ferocious solos. Rob & Jim Fieldhouse both composed a chart each on the CD as well, thank you chaps! Special mention must go to the rhythm section – Elliott Henshaw - drums, Ollie Collins - bass guitar, Paul Kilvington - keyboards & Steve ‘everyone ready?’ Gilbert - percussion. They were roaring on every chart! Very special thanks to Steve Gilbert who produced ‘Sax of Gold’.

I’m delighted that guesting on the CD along with Gwilym, is none other than US Sax Supremo Bob Mintzer! Bob also joins SaxAssault on stage at Life Café, Manchester on Monday 19th March 2007!!

Please note that the date scheduled at the Brindley in Runcorn (13th April) has been postponed until November, when SaxAssault embarks on another run of gigs.

For a sneak preview of SaxAssault take a look at www.myspace.com/saxassault where two videos are up of our performance at the 14th World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Bob Mintzer joins us on the track ‘Sax of Gold’.

In May the Apollo Saxophone Quartet undertakes a collaborative project with composer Barry Guy and the Goldberg Ensemble. In addition to the ASQ playing Barry’s ‘Mobile Hebarium’, the ASQ & Goldberg join forces to World Premiere his new work ‘Convergence’. This project has been in the pipeline for sometime, after which the group takes a short break to individually explore our own projects and collaborations.

In September I take up the post of ‘Composer in Residence’ for a year at Sandbach School in Cheshire. It really is a fantastic school with a very strong percentage of students playing musical instruments, all driven by a strong music team headed by John Barber.

December/January saw the completion of a ten-minute commission for Big Band, a co –commission from the Hull Youth Jazz Orchestra and the University of Huddersfield Big Band. I went to Hull to work on the piece with the band who showed such enthusiasm and spirit. It made me realise how important music making is to all of us but especially young people! You work as a team, have to master an instrument through discipline and hard work, and most of all feel the energy and emotion of music and have a good time! Special thanks to Sean Miller for organising this commission.

If you’re a saxophonist please check out the Diary Page for gigs that I’m doing, it would be great to see you there! ‘Metal Shapes’ is a new piece that is written especially for the workshops that SaxAssault are undertaking in March at our concert venues. Players of all ages and abilities will join all the players of SaxAssault in a one-hour workshop and a pre-concert performance.

Dave Hassell & I play in Leeds at the Venue, along with Richard Ellis & Gary Abbott presenting ‘Summer with Monica’ & ‘My Mountain Top’. On Thursday 15th March the Duo plays at the RNCM JCR (student union) as part of a new series of informal talks/gigs that have been organised by the RNCM students themselves. Also featured in this series in March are guitarist Stuart McCallum, trumpeter Neil Yates & saxophonist Ingrid Laubrook.

It’s all very well talking about recordings, gigs and the like….. at the moment I’m more concerned to see if my kids pass their grade one clarinet and piano, now that’s stress :-)

That’s it for now! Hope to catch you at a gig in March!!

Best wishes,
Andy

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