saxophones

I’ve always been a big fan of the World Saxophone Quartet. Two-and-a-half years ago in Iceland, I recorded some brass songs with three saxophones and a voice with Icelandic brass players. I sensed they needed something ; musically, they were right and it was the form I wanted them to be, but they needed arrangement. I sent Oliver the score and tape, and he kind of rewrote the bits for saxophone and made it come alive. He put attitude in it that I was incapable of.

I’m not so into jazz at all. I am and I’m not.

There’s nothing I hate more than saxophones. Eighty per cent of it I can’t stand, like rock ’n’ roll sax, but Oliver’s attitude is very modern. It’s fresh. Saxophones tend to romanticise a lot, I like them being quite pranksterish, sounding rude. I don’t like it when it’s red-wine bar and dinner music. The stuff Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry did together is my favourite. It doesn’t take anything for granted and has a sense of humour which is so imponant. So many people forget about humour.

VOX, december 1993