The Tiptons Sax Quartet brings together four enormously talented artists – Amy Denio (Kultur Shock, OU, Ama Trio), Jessica Lurie (Living Daylights, Zion 80, Jessica Lurie Ensemble), Tobi Stone (Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Jefferson Rose Band), and Sue Orfield (Sue Orfield Band, Ellen Whyte) with guest drummer Tarik Abouzied (McTuff)– who use their saxophones and their voices to boldly go where their musical muses lead them, from bluegrass to Balkan, gospel to funk, and the whole wide realm of jazz, with particular emphasis on the quirky and whimsical. Author Rick Moody calls their music “moving, strange, beautiful, and new,” and says “no one else surprises me as much and with such stunning musicality.”

The band was once called the Billy Tipton Memorial Sax Quartet, in honor of big band saxophonist and pianist Billy Tipton, a woman who lived as a man for more than 50 years to pursue a career in the male-dominated world of jazz. Why be bound by convention? The band has composed music for four saxophones and three city busses, as well as collaborating with graphic artist and painter Danijel Zezelj and choreographer Pat Graney. Their work has been featured on NPR, as well as on national radio stations in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Germany, and France. They’ve released 13 albums since their founding in 1988, including their latest, tiny lower case, which features more of the group’s provocative vocal work as well as their amazing sax playing.

Singing in both English and French, Canadian-Californian songcrafter and multi-instrumentalist Madeline Tasquin weaves nimbly from jazz-tinged folk to odd-meter soul, from twisted pop ballad to delicately dark fairy-tale. Raised in Northern British Columbia by her opera singer mother and Austrian gold-miner father, Tasquin began playing the piano as soon as she could reach the keys and developed an acute sense of melody and harmony by singing on long car trips with her mother and two younger sisters. In her teenagehood, Primus and Mr.Bungle played on repeat alongside Rachmaninoff, Satie and Chopin. After completing a degree in Architecture in Sydney Australia, she returned to her musical roots upon relocating to Berkeley in 2006.

Since the 2012 release of her EP Another Trip Around the Sun, Madeline has spent her time in the Bay Area, Europe and in the Pacific Northwest, touring and developing a repertoire that leans closer to soul and folk than the orchestral-pop flavor of her debut recording.  In “The Acorn and the Oak,” a romantically wandering melody reminiscent of a Chopin nocturne is woven through a driving blues ballad in compound meter.  In “Twinkle Twinkle Little Satellite” she quotes the familiar nursery song melody and then corrupts it in chromatic fashion, resolving into a doo-wop anthem about relativity. The thread that weaves it all together is a 3-octave voice that adapts to the emotional and musical moment with grace, skill and passion. Among those who have joined her on the stage are Rebecca Kleinmann on flute, Town Quartet and Amaranth String Quartet, Paul Bertin on saxophone, Dan Cantrell on accordion, Reed Mathis on bass, Mateo Lugo on guitar, Trevor Garrod on banjo, Ezra Lipp on drums and a slew of other fine Bay Area talent. A full-length album is in the works and is expected to hatch in spring of 2015, a co-proudction collaboration with producer-composers Daniel Wright and Dan Cantrell.

For the past 2 years she has pursued a rigorous performance calendar in the Western US and Europe, and Tasquin’s growing list of collaborators is significant.  She has worked with a host of San Francisco Bay Area talent, including Reed Mathis on bass (Tea Leaf Green, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey), Rebecca Kleinmann on flute (Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto), Deren Ney (Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers) and George Cole (David Grisman) on guitar, Dan Cantrell on accordion (Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom), Trevor Garrod on banjo (Tea Leaf Green), and Ezra Lipp on drums (Sean Hayes, Mohsen Namjoo), and Graham Patzner on violin (Whiskerman, Gospel Flats).

Established in 2014, the Madeline Tasquin Trading Company features acclaimed drummer Amir Oosman, Bradford Isaaq Tidwell on bass, and Paul Bertin on saxophone. A special guest appearance by members of Amaranth String Quartet is also in store for their debut Freight & Salvage concert. 

Listen to a track from The Tiptons Sax Quartet:

Listen to a track from Madeline Tasquin:

visit The Tiptons Sax Quartet website

visit Madeline Tasquin's website