Tag Archives: The Tiptones Saxophone Quartet

CD Review: The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums – the driving force of horn splendor created by this historic all-women sax quartet!

TLCcover-front1webArtist: The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums
Title: Tiny Lower Case
Label: Spoot Music
Genre: genres from micro-big band, gospel, bluegrass, and Balkan to whimsical jazz and nocturnal funk

Review by Dawoud Kringle

What happens when you draw inspiration from micro-big band, gospel, bluegrass, Balkan, whimsical jazz, nocturnal funk, New Orleans “second – line,” Afro-Cuban, Balkan, Klezmer and beyond? The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums! Hailing from New York, Seattle, and Eau Claire, the band has been composing and performing their music in the US and Europe since their beginnings in 1993.

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The 10th release by the The Tiptones Saxophone Quartet (plus drums)!!!

CD review by Matt Cole

Artist: The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet
Title: Strange Flower
Cat.#: 884501405928
Label: Zipa! / Spoot Music
Genre: Jazz/Balkan Beat
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Strange Flower, recorded in June of 2010 and dropped this winter, is the 10th release by the The Tiptones Saxophone Quartet  (plus drums), the 6th since the band reformed in 2002, and the 2nd featuring the band’s current lineup of, Amy Denio  (alto sax, clarinet, voice),  Jessica Lurie  (alto & tenor sax, voice), Sue Orfield  (tenor sax, voice), and Tina Richerson (baritone sax, voice). Chris Stromquist (of Kultur Shock, Slavic Soul Party, and other fame) holds down the drums on this album.

The Tiptons are named for Billy Tipton, a successful big band saxophone player, pianist, and band leader who was born a woman but dressed and then lived as a man, in order to play the music that he loved without being relegated to novelty acts; except for a few family members and friends, most of Tipton’s friends and musical collaborators did not learn of his anatomical gender until after his death.

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