Live Fingers is the second release of the 40 fingers saxophone quartet, a group of Toronto composers and performers who came together in 1993. The recording was made live with an audience on three extremely hot nights in July, 1997. Imagine four saxophone players blowing their hears out and dripping sweat into large puddles on the stage. In a review of one of the concerts, Matt Galloway wrote in NOW magazine: “…what made 40 fingers’ two sets so remarkable was that virtuosity was paired with humour and oddball personality. The quartet easily eclipsed the conventional boundaries of their instruments, and had a blast doing it.”

The idea is to bring improvisation and composition into close contact, as two complementary approaches to music-making. All the members of 40 fingers have both improvisation and composition in their backgrounds. In the “real world” of concerts and recordings, however, opporunities are rare to bring the two approaches together. That’s what 40 fingers is all about: integration.

The programme of music on this disc is true to 40 fingers’ established format: Some pieces (paralisq, Sunflower, Stone Harvest) are completely structured, that is, written down, predetermined by a composer (usually one of the ensemble members). Other pieces (pieces, orange, ourglass) are completely improvised or have some minimal scheme agreed upon by all of us, and the rest fall in between, combining both elements (Marching Orders).

40 FINGERS

1. pieces

PETER LUTEK

2. paralisq

JON SIDDALL

3. Sunflower

40 FINGERS

4. orange

5. Stone Harvest

6. ourglass

DAVID MOTT

7. Marching Orders