A sequel to Saxspectrum (2009), Saxspectrum 2 presents an eclectic variety of contemporary works for solo alto saxophone, as well as saxophone duets with piano, trumpet, and didgeridoo. Released on the MSR Classics label, Saxspectrum 2 features special guest performers and composers. Some of the highlights of this well-reviewed album include: Gillis’ solo “Doppler Wah Wah Air-Jig;” the grey wolf-inspired sax/e-flat cedar didgeridoo duet “Canis Lupus,” with James E. Cunningham; and “Spectrum Mashup,” in which Gillis and recording engineer Wayne Giesbrecht cohesively combine melodic and outtake snippets into a whimsical finale.
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Saxspectrum 1 & 2 Reviews – Fanfare Magazine, April 19, 2015
An Interview with Glen Gillis – Fanfare Magazine, February 7, 2015
Another streak of originality is the combination of sax and (believe it or not) the Australian aboriginal didgeridoo, with its low, whale-like singing and buzzy, seismic timbre. In collaboration with James Cunningham, an American enthusiast and pioneer in the modern didgeridoo (no longer a long cylinder, but compactly right-angled and whimsically dubbed the sewerphone), we get duets that simulate two Arctic wolves calling to each other across the dark winter tundra (Canis Lupus) and “hot rain” in Indonesia. These duets culminated for me in the wittily entertaining jazz riff Didgeriblu on the first album. A group known, irresistibly, as the Didgeri Dudes provides an eerie sonic background, a kind of electronic cave, that surrounds Gillis’s solo sax in two world-music pieces, Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis—they alone would make these CDs ear-opening. Huntley Dent