If you chance to be a saxophobe but have a friend who isn't, buy him or her a copy of this disc as a present, but after hearing it you may possibly regret parting with it. All the music was written or arranged (by the composer) for saxophone quartet, and it crosses a variety of idioms from that of 'classical' music to those of jazz, the hoe-down, film music and the Icelandic saga. A saxophone quartet is in effect a 'whole consort', to be listened to (unless you are certifiably allergic to its sound) like any other – a recorder consort, a brass ensemble, or a string quartet.
In their first recording, the Apollo Quartet prove to be musically sensitive, tight in ensemble and painless in intonation. Dear old Adolphe, who even proposed the erection of a giant 'muzak machine' overlooking Paris, could never have visualized anything like this. As I have long believed that the quality of a piece of music is in inverse relation to the amount of prior explanation it requires, I approached Bedford's work, the longest on the disc, with some trepidation. I recommend that you listen first and then, if you feel motivated, read the lengthy explanation; with repeated hearings it has grown on me! Gregory's fun-music Hoe down for saxophone sextet scored a first-time hit. Powell's comment on Bow out perhaps epitomizes the best approach to the programme as a whole: ''neither 'jazz' nor 'classical' . . . [it] occupies its own space''. The recording is high-quality in all respects.'