My name is Mick Foster, I’m a saxophonist and composer based in the UK. I’m looking for backers to help fund an album of my original music for saxophone quartet. The album will feature my two saxophone quartets, new quartet arrangements of my pieces ‘Five Contemporary Dances’ originally composed for saxophone and piano, and a bass clarinet quartet. All these pieces blend contemporary sounds with jazz influenced harmony and rhythm. You can hear a sample of my Saxophone Quartet No 1 here and a preview of us rehearsing the Contemporary Dances here.
The album will be released on Deux-Elles Records, an independent UK based record label focusing on high quality classical recordings, and will be engineered by Matt Wadsworth. The recording will feature Quartz Saxophone Quartet, of which I am a member. We aim to create an album that will be benchmark recordings of these pieces.
The other members of Quartz are Paul Stevens, Christian Forshaw and Bradley Grant. Between us we have played in all the major UK orchestras, in the country’s best known big bands, and for many West End shows and pop & film sessions.
The pieces we plan to record are published by Saxtet Publications, who will also publish the new ‘Five Contemporary Dances’ arrangements and 'Autumn Tones', the bass clarinet quartet. Saxtet are known internationally as the ‘go to’ place for original saxophone sheet music. The saxophone and piano versions of the ‘Five Contemporary Dances’ feature on exam syllabuses and have proved to be popular pieces within the saxophone repertoire. You can see all my works published by Saxtet here.
Our backers will help finance the album. I am working in partnership with Deux-Elles, who are providing their expertise in recording, album design, publicity & distribution. The album will be available on CD, as well being available to listen to on streaming services. Costs that our backers will help us with are:
Editing and mastering
Venue / studio hire
Artist fees
Producer fees
Rehearsal costs
CD production
A variety of rewards is on offer; signed copies of the finished CD, discounts on the sheet music at Saxtet Publications, saxophone lessons and private performances. Saxtet have also offered to donate 50% of the sales of the pieces we are recording to the Crowdfunder, until the album is completed. We would be grateful for any contribution; if you are unable to contribute but could help us by sharing the campaign far and wide, that would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your support.
Mick
"Mick Foster’s two new saxophone quartets are two of the most substantial and valuable additions to the saxophone quartet repertoire in the past twenty-five years. These fantastic new compositions from one of the UK’s leading saxophonists deserve the widest possible support and recognition."
Tom Bruton, Saxtet Publications