Odean Pope Sax Choir Birthday Celebration at Blue Note New York

ODEAN POPE SAX CHOIR BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Ft. SPECIAL GUESTS

In 1979, saxophonist Odean Pope joined the Max Roach Quartet, and was a regular member for more than two decades. It was as the tenor man with Max Roach he perfected the techniques of circular breathing and multiphonics, and a full range of sonic expression, from the husky sounds for which he is so well known to all kinds of delicacy. Odean has garnered acclaim from Australia to Japan, including winning "Best Tenor Saxophone Player" at the North Sea Jazz Festival. He now works with his trio (along with Lee Smith and Craig McIver), quartet (adding Tom Lawton on piano), and Saxophone Choir....

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ODEAN POPE SAX CHOIR BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Ft. SPECIAL GUESTS

In 1979, saxophonist Odean Pope joined the Max Roach Quartet, and was a regular member for more than two decades. It was as the tenor man with Max Roach he perfected the techniques of circular breathing and multiphonics, and a full range of sonic expression, from the husky sounds for which he is so well known to all kinds of delicacy. Odean has garnered acclaim from Australia to Japan, including winning "Best Tenor Saxophone Player" at the North Sea Jazz Festival. He now works with his trio (along with Lee Smith and Craig McIver), quartet (adding Tom Lawton on piano), and Saxophone Choir.



The Saxophone Choir includes nine saxophones, piano, bass and drums. It was established by Odean in 1977, and first recorded in 1985 with a Soul Note album called The Saxophone Shop. The Saxophone Choir has been the realization of Odean's southern legacy, a medium for creating the richly textured harmonic sound that has permeated his musical soul since hearing the gospel choirs of his childhood. Even though he plays clarinet, oboe, piccolo, flute and piano, Odean feels an affinity for the tenor saxophone because it most closely mimics the human voice.

Odean constructs layers of melodic sound by playing within the fourth system in different tone scales and using multiphonics, i.e. playing more than one pitch at a time, for which he is well known. The Saxophone Choir reaches a stunning intensity that functions as one voice, described by Francis Davis as "harmonically engorged".

Odean recently won the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation's 2017 Living Legacy Award.

Joe Lovano says, "Odean Pope is a bad, bad, bad, beautiful musician, man." Ornette Coleman was so moved when he heard Locked And Loaded by The Saxophone Choir that he cried, and humbly agreed to write that record's liner notes.

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