Henry Kuntz - Wayang Saxophony Shadow Saxophone

Humming Bird
HB CD6

When I first heard about this product, I had something else entirely in mind. I assumed that Henry Kuntz would be infusing his tenor saxophone playing with Balinese scales and rhythms, becoming something of a micro-Gamelan orchestra. But he had another approach up his batik’d sleeve, one that’s a little difficult to convey via only an audio disc: creating music to accompany his own Balinese shadow puppets. If the listener keeps this in mind and reenacts the stories presented in this Wayang Saxophony in his/her imagination, the disc becomes intriguingly rewarding.

The album is presented in two suites, the first of five movements, the second of two, though in each case the transition between sections is seamless. During the great majority of the time, Kuntz is playing breath tones of a slightly vocalized sort. Only rarely do recognizable reed tones surface, often emerging as though for a gulp of air before being swallowed back into the rushing wind. The initial suite, “Ten Names of Peace” supplies this sonic puppetry via solo tenor and, despite the coaxing of the title, it’s rather fun to visualize the shadow figures engaged in mythic combat and mischievousness, taking swats at one another with each whoosh of reedy air. Kuntz overdubs four tenors for the latter piece, “Tenor of the Times”, allowing more discernable saxophonics to filter through (generally very high or very low). As a purely auditory experience, I found this latter portion more effective simply due to the increased sound sources which include a slightly more varied selection of attacks. Again, one can imagine the music being perfectly and unusually suited to the silhouetted actions of mythic entities.

The disc is available from CDBaby.