JazzTimes: Overdue Ovation: PRISM Saxophone Quartet
Matthew Levy and colleagues expand musical frontiers with decades of cutting-edge jazz/classical collaborations and commissions.
Just as a prism refracts and disperses beams of light into separate bands of color, PRISM Saxophone Quartet seeks to bend sound waves into a rainbow of resonances. One of the world’s foremost saxophone chamber ensembles, it’s been active over four decades; performed throughout the States, South America, China and Russia; dropped 39 recordings (with eight more pending); and commissioned over 400 new works.
Despite this impeccable track record, PRISM — currently comprised of Timothy McAllister (soprano), Zachary Shemon (alto), co-founder Matthew Levy (tenor) and Taimur Sullivan (baritone) — doesn’t enjoy the reach and notoriety of, say, a celebrity content provider. Rather, the group is a kind of underground influencer, having earned the trust of a small but deeply engaged niche audience drawn to the quality and authenticity of its product.
Classical Roots
Although the saxophone is at the heart and soul of jazz, in classical music culture it has held an outsider status. This was notably challenged by French saxophonist Marcel Mule, who played a key role in establishing and expanding repertoire for the instrument by founding Quatuor de la Garde Républicaine in 1928, the first forward-thinking saxophone quartet.
A second seminal figure was Sigurd Raschèr, who formed his eponymous (still active) quartet in 1969. The third and most important figure in this prehistory is Donald Sinta, former professor of classical saxophone at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In addition to his virtuosic technique, sensitive interpretative skills and a gorgeous tone, Sinta’s welcoming way with students established the music department as an epicenter of the best and brightest young classical saxophonists.
In 1984, four of them — Matthew Levy (tenor), Reggie Borik (soprano), Michael Whitcomb (alto) and Timothy Miller (baritone) — became PRISM Quartet. Inspired by Sinta and the American school of classical saxophone, they hoped to harness the instrument’s unique technical capabilities to explore the farthest reaches of the musical rainbow.