NEW STORIES (Joseph Lulloff and Yu-Lien The)

Versatile American saxophonist Joseph Lulloff’s New Stories, with pianist Yu-Lien The, showcases world-premiere recordings of three works written expressly for him and one as part of a collaborative saxophone commission. These new classical compositions invite listeners to savor the expansive colors, virtuosity, and eclecticism of the saxophone on an album that unleashes the instrument’s musical, technical, and artistic potential.

The Michigan-based saxophone-and-piano duo of Lulloff and The play works by composers with deep personal and musical ties to the American Midwest, especially the Great Lakes State.

Dorothy Chang, who composed the album’s title work, collaborated closely with Lulloff and The in creating a suite for alto saxophone and piano that explores her Chinese-American heritage through Eastern and Western musical influences. With its propulsive, mechanized energy, David Biedenbender’s unaccompanied Detroit Steel for alto saxophone honors, in his words, “the grit, strength, and resolve” of the Motor City’s workers. Lulloff was one of a consortium of sax players who commissioned Stacy Garrop’s Wrath for tenor saxophone and piano. The dramatic, high-energy work conjures an angry, rebellious teenager. Carter Pann’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano artfully juxtaposes Romantic and modern idioms and Renaissance and Baroque forms. Pann describes the “Cuppa Joe” movement, a nod to Lulloff’s love of coffee, as “a sonic onslaught, a barrage of notes” that could only have been written for the veteran saxophonist whom the Cleveland Plain Dealer called “amazing” and The New York Times hailed as a soloist of “considerable virtuosity.”

DOROTHY CHANG
New Stories for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2013)

I. Floating Worlds 5:25

II. A Tall Tale Told 4:46

III. Reflection 4:49

IV. Folksong 4:53

DAVID BIEDENBENDER
Detroit Steel (2019) 6:39

STACY GARROP
Wrath (2019)

I. Menace 6:22

II. Shock 6:23

III. Amok 3:22

CARTER PANN
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2016)

I. This Black Cat 4:49

II. Three Songs Without Words

1. Reverie 3:54

2. Soaring 3:14

3. Consolation 6:09

III. Cuppa Joe 1:51

IV. Epilogue: Lacrimosa in memory of Joel Hastings 4:39