A Conductor’s and Performer’s Guide to Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone - Chester Jenkins

121 BRYANT: Yeah (both laugh) JENKINS: That last saxophone line, with the freak out and all the growling and everything. It’s a lot of fun! It’s great fun to practice in the practice rooms! BRYANT: (laughs) Yep JENKINS: What inspired you write that? I feel like a lot of this is pretty controlled up unto that point and then all hell breaks loose! BRYANT: Yeah well if it’s going to break loose it should be right at the end! (both laugh) BRYANT: You know, I love music that is visceral, I love experiences in the concert hall that just grab you and say “You will listen to this”! And you can’t resist it, and I really despise the opposite of that, where it is just like this glass wall between you and the stage and ugh! JENKINS: Yeah BRYANT: And I was thinking, how can I hype this up all the way, save it until the end and then turn it up to 11 for the last couple of pages! JENKINS: Yeah BRYANT: Lulloff showed me that low Bb, doing that thing, he showed that to me and I was like, “Ok, I’m doing that! How do I write it, like this? And scream?” I don’t remember if he said I should write the words “Freak Out” or I did? It might have been him, “this is what I want, I want to freak out, ok yeah, write that”! And so what do you do at the very end, what is even more ridiculous then, “set horn on fire, fly away with jet pack”! JENKINS: Right! (both laugh) BRYANT: He keeps threatening to do that, and I’m like “Do it”! I use the growling and humming and I think I just wanted to amp it all the way up and what’s left to do? JENKINS: Yeah. This may be a dumb question. So, the last two chords you have those open fifths, the B-F# and then it goes to Ab-Eb while Joe’s hanging onto that F#. So, how did you decide to do that movement while he’s still hanging on that F#. BRYANT: Well, actually, I originally wanted him to go up a whole step higher to tonic. JENKINS: Oh…OK BRYANT: And really resolve it. And he could, but he was really not comfortable with…he said, ‘I can’t do it every time.’