THE ODEAN POPE BUFFALO SAXOPHONE CHOIR

The Odean Pope Buffalo Saxophone Choir featuring: Odean Pope (composer, director, lead tenor saxophone) (HARP artist); Tyrone Brown (bass); Craig McIver (drums); Bobby Jones (piano); Dave Schiavone (tenor sax); Bilal Abdullah (tenor sax); Jeff Hackworth (tenor sax); Leroy Johnson (tenor sax); Carol McLaughlin (alto sax); Colin Renick (alto sax); Joel Siegel (alto sax); Steve Baczkowski (baritone sax).

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center is proud to sponsor a three-week production residency and public performance by internationally renowned, Philadelphia-based jazz saxophonist and composer Odean Pope. Pope is known throughout the jazz world both for his work of over twenty-five years as tenor saxophonist with legendary bebop drummer Max Roach’s Quartet and as leader of his own trio, which Hallwalls presented in concert on October 24, 1998. Pope is also world renowned as founder, conductor, and lead instrumentalist of the Saxophone Choir, a big band with nine saxophones and full rhythm section that Pope modeled on the big Baptist church choirs of his South Carolina youth. The main purpose of Pope’s residency in Buffalo will be to assemble, rehearse, conduct, and perform with eight of Buffalo’s best locally-based professional jazz saxophonists to form a Buffalo Saxophone Choir, which will perform its debut public concert at The University at Buffalo's Allen Hall on Friday evening, March 23, 2001, at 8:00 P.M.

Odean Pope conceived of his Saxophone Choir in 1977. "I was brought up in the church," Pope recalls, "and they used to have choirs that I would sing in. Deep down, I always asked myself how it would sound to have nine saxophones do the same thing. Saxophones are the instruments closest to the human voice." He should know: besides serving as Max Roach’s tenor player (which places him in the immortal company of altoist Charlie Parker), Pope has performed with such masters of the saxophone as John Coltrane, Buffalo native Grover Washington, Archie Shepp, Benny Golson, Sam Rivers, and David Murray. Not to mention such other jazz virtuosi as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Lee Morgan, and Clark Terry; bassists Jimmy Garrison and Reggie Workman; drummers Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, and Louis Bellson; and pianists McCoy Tyner and Billy Taylor. The Saxophone Choir itself is composed of nine saxophones (5 tenors, 3 altos, and one baritone) plus rhythm section. This choir has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and as far away as Sydney, Australia, where in 1997 Pope traveled with the same rhythm section he’ll be bringing to Buffalo (bassist Tyrone Brown and drummer Craig McIver). There he assembled a sax section made up entirely of Australian players, much as he’ll be doing here in Buffalo. Pope has released four Saxophone Choir recordings including The Saxophone Shop (1986), The Ponderer (1991), and Epitome (1994). The Saxophone Choir’s appearance at the 1992 Newport Jazz Festival was broadcast on the A&E cable network. Besides his stellar credentials as a sideman, bandleader, and composer, Odean Pope is a recipient of major fellowships from The Pew Charitable Trusts (1991–92) and The Rockefeller Foundation (1992)

"Most saxophonists who use John Coltrane's ideas end up sounding like him. Not Philadelphia's Odean Pope-- the longtime member of the Max Roach Quartet has a style all his own. Like Trane, Pope's an impeccable craftsman and an advanced thinker, but his imposing skill and intellect are always dedicated to a higher aim. …his search for hidden relationships in the musical structure has all the drama and beauty of a search for divine secrets. His solos often employ such advanced techniques as multiphonics (playing several notes at once), circular breathing (inhaling through the nose and exhaling into the instrument simultaneously), and elaborate motivic development. But he does so with a personalized sound -- a hard, flinty tone brightened by an expressively hoarse edge. He works in collaboration with bassist Tyrone Brown, whose warm, voluptuous sound and continuous countermelodies add harmonic depth and rhythmic variety, and drummer Craig McIver, a melodic drummer with both finesse and power. If years of hearing Coltrane's innovations rehashed have left you feeling there's nothing more to be done with them, this music will revive your faith." -Ed Hazel

"My philosophy is that even if you successfully pass that information down to one out of 10 students then that one will pass it down to others," he adds. "You've got to keep that fire burning." For Pope, that fire has burned hotly since his youth. "When I first came to Philadelphia I was 10 years old," he says. "There was a place called the Earl Theater, and they used to have Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Illinois Jacquet, and Buddy Rich's big bands--a whole lotta big bands used to come through town. I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music." At 18, he joined the pit band at the rival Uptown Theater, playing behind such R&B and soul heavyweights as Stevie Wonder and Aretha. "About 10 days out of each month, they'd feature a touring stage show--Smokey, the Supremes," recalls Pope, who already had sat in with jazz greats Chet Baker Elvin Jones. "I learned a lot from that." It was during one of his frequent visits to a local nightclub that an underage Pope met Roach. "I wasn't old enough to go inside the clubs, but I used to stand right near the door and listen to all the music." During the breaks, the musicians would come outside to catch a breath of fresh air. One of them later arranged for Pope to sit with Roach. "Max kicked 'Cherokee' so fast that it was one of the most intense learning experiences I ever had,". "It made me go back to the woodshed to get more and more involved with the music." Among his closest contacts in those early years were such jazz notables as Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharaoh Sanders, Benny Golson, and Jimmy Heath--all part of the bustling Philly music scene. He remembers Coltrane as a humble man who would sit in his living room with his tenor sax perched on his lap, surrounded by a half-dozen books on African and American literature and the arts, alternately reading and playing his horn. " Trane gave me my first major job with [jazz organist] Jimmy Smith," Pope says. "When [Coltrane] went to work with Miles Davis [in 1958], he had two weeks left on a job at a club here in Philly. He'd been listening to me at some of the local jazz workshops and for whatever reason he called and asked me take over that spot for him. Of course, I was scared to death, but he convinced me that I could do it." At 21, Pope landed a spot in Roach's landmark band. It was a heady experience for the novice jazz player who stayed on board for a year before returning to Philly. "It really showed me the kinds of things I needed to do and convinced me that music was going to be my livelihood," he says. "I came back and enrolled in school and got deeply involved with it." He returned with a vengeance, performing with pianist Ray Bryant and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers before resuming his long, continuous association with Roach. In the 70s, he led an experimental jazz-funk fusion band called Catalyst, a contemporary of Miles Davis' early electric bands. "It was a period of adjustment during which all musicians were standing back and taking a very good look at themselves and saying, 'Let's dabble in this and see if there's anything there.'" He formed his own trio, a format that gave him the freedom to explore a more adventurous free-jazz sound, and joined the ranks of jazz players reaching out into unexplored musical terrain. Over the years, he has embraced the spirit of musical discovery. "Right now, I'm working on the whole spectrum of how you can expand, like cross rhythms. It gives me a chance to extend from where some of these jazz giants left off," he explains. "I'm taking it to another level. The way I look at it is, music is evolution. Every time I pick that horn up there's always something that I discover I can do differently if I really seek. If you were on planet Earth for two billion years, I feel as though there's always something new that you can find to do. There's no end. "When you feel satisfied with what you're doing and feel as though you've got everything, then you're dead." -Greg Cahill