… and spring is now in full season.

The saxophone is one of those instruments that people seem to either love or hate. It was invented to be the lovechild of the trumpet and clarinet – capable of the loud, bright tones of the brass as well as the soft, warm timbre of the clarinet. As it became more popular, it found its way into a number of orchestral compositions (most famously, Bolero & Pictures at an Exhibition), but its popularity exploded in the jazz idiom. Here was an instrument that could outplay the trumpet in speed and range, while being as expressive and sensual as a clarinet.

Here’s the king of big bands, Count Basie and his Orchestra, playing a number of usher out the month – April in Paris.

I just love the part at 0:21, when the sax chorus plays with that wobbly vibrato – no other instrument could get away with that!

It’s only natural that humans compare their lives to the world around them – the birth (or rebirth) of life at spring, the fruits of summer, the autumnal decline, the unforgiving winter.

Composer Thomas Morley lived during England’s Elizabethan golden age and is best known for the secular Madrigals – choral pieces related to the polyphonic sacred music of the time, but with texts about love, death, and everything in between. Morley was probably friends with Shakespeare, and is one of only two composers whose music was used in Shakespeare‘s productions while the great poet was alive.

His short madrigal, “April is in my Mistress’ Face” compares his lover to … er … certain months of the year.

Ouch.