CD review by Matt Cole
Artist: The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet
Title: Strange Flower
Cat.#: 884501405928
Label: Zipa! / Spoot Music
Genre: Jazz/Balkan Beat
Listen to and buy the CD
Strange Flower, recorded in June of 2010 and dropped this winter, is the 10th release by the The Tiptones Saxophone Quartet (plus drums), the 6th since the band reformed in 2002, and the 2nd featuring the band’s current lineup of, Amy Denio (alto sax, clarinet, voice), Jessica Lurie (alto & tenor sax, voice), Sue Orfield (tenor sax, voice), and Tina Richerson (baritone sax, voice). Chris Stromquist (of Kultur Shock, Slavic Soul Party, and other fame) holds down the drums on this album.
The Tiptons are named for Billy Tipton, a successful big band saxophone player, pianist, and band leader who was born a woman but dressed and then lived as a man, in order to play the music that he loved without being relegated to novelty acts; except for a few family members and friends, most of Tipton’s friends and musical collaborators did not learn of his anatomical gender until after his death.
