The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra is the only musical group in the world that regularly records and tours featuring all seven sizes of saxophones -- soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, the tiny seldom-used sopranino and the huge exceptionally-rare contrabass. With that combination giving them a broad six-and-a-half -octave range, The Nuclear Whales are able to create incrediblyinnovative music with sophisticated arrangements, top-notch musicianship and more than a splash of humor.
This explosively-madcap sextet really knows how to wail. Proof is fully evident in their renowned stage shows (zany comedy and footloose choreography are added to their unusual music) and on their latest album, Fathom This: A Retrospective., a collection of 16 songs (plus a few surprises) that span their entire career and show their versatility and daring-do. The CD contains material from each of their previous five albums (including their versions of classics like "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Summertime," "Darktown Strutter's Ball"), two tunes recorded for the first time ("Kramat," "Amazing Grace"), new versions of two songs previously recorded ("Harlem Nocturne," "Also Sprach Zarathustra"), and two short pieces where they jam with humpback, orca and beluga whales. The band -_ Don Stevens, Dale Mills, Art Springs, Kristen Strom, Kelley Hart Jenkins, and Kevin Stewart -combines elements of a jazz act, a marching band, a swing group and a classical orchestra.
A portion of the proceeds from sales of Fathom This will appropriately be donated to the American Oceans Campaign (AOC), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the health and vitality of the oceans and coastal waters by concentrating on threats to water quality, fish and marine biodiversity, and significant marine areas. The AOC's co-founder is actor Ted Danson.
According to Nuclear Whales founder Don Stevens, "Everyone always wants to know where the name of the group came from and what it means. It's about 'ultimate extremes.' The words 'nuclear' and 'whale' both hit strong emotional chords. It sort of asks the question of whether potentially destructive technology and peaceful mammals can coexist on this planet. In addition, as we make clear in concert and on the record, some of the sounds that come out of saxophones sound remarkably like the noises whales make. Coincidence or incredible metaphysical synchronicity? We'll let you decide."
Saxophone quartets are somewhat common, but a sextet playing "the full family of saxophones" is unique in this era. On one end of the spectrum The Nuclear Whales feature the small, highend, 18 inch sopranino. The other extreme is the contrabass with a low pitch that puts a foghorn to shame. This turn-of-the-century piece of plumbing is the world's largest saxophone, by the way. It stands a leviathan-size six-feet-eight-inches tall (all one piece topto-bottom except for the neck and mouthpiece). The Whales' 85-year-old contrabass is one of the few working models in existence. Several years ago The Nuclear Whales performed for President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, and the band invited the longtime-saxophonep laying prez to give the giant contrabass a toot. "it takes a lot of hot air to play that thing," says Stevens, "and the president did a great job."
Despite their odd name, on-stage humor and vaudevillian antics, The Nuclear Whales are very serious about their music. They take great pride in their complex, but highly-accessible arrangements. Most of the arrangements were created by the band, but others came from a couple of now-obscure, but classic saxophone groups in the past -- the Brown Brothers Saxophone Orchestra from the Twenties Vaudeville era, and the Hollywood Saxophone Quartet from the Fifties and early Sixties (they occasionally played as a sextet). "It was like playing detective to track down the surviving members of those bands and get a few written arrangements from them," explains Stevens, who is a sax musicologist. Most of the group's own arrangements come from two bandmembers -- Art Springs (who writes most of the Whales' original material) and the late Ann Merrell, to whom the album is dedicated.
They formed in 1981 as The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Quartet. In 1984 Stevens found "an oldtimer saxophonist" who sold him a relatively-rare bass sax, and soon the group added two more players and became an "Orchestra." They added the contrabass in 1989. Whether the band is performing classical repertoire from Bach or Strauss, swing band numbers written by Duke Ellington, marching material from John Phillips Sousa, Gershwin Broadway standards, or original material, The Whales stretch the limits of what is capable using saxophones (with occasional percussion and acoustic bass).
The group's humor is evident in their album titles: The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra (which first introduced their wacky name to the world), Whalin', Thar Thev Blow, Gone Fission, Isotopla and the new Fathom This. For audiophile quality, all their albums were recorded live, direct to two-track, and Fathom This was mastered with HDCD.
Stevens (alto and contrabass) first began playing clarinet at age eight, switching to sax after high school. While getting a BA Degree in Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he also studied music. He played in a jazz band during college and then with a singer-guitarist. Until becoming a fulltime Nuclear Whale, he did medical research, managed a music store, worked as a disc jockey, performed with the San Jose Symphony, and toured with Lou Harrison's Gamelon Orchestra.
Dale Mills (tenor and alto) was in the band back in 1983 for a year and then rejoined in 1991. Previously he was a member of Max Hartstein's 25th Century Ensemble and Jake Stock's Abalone Stompers, and has played with the Temptations, Little Anthony, Mary Wells, Fabian, Leroy Vineggar, Bruce Forman, Smith Dobson, Ritchie Cole, Catfish Hodge, Freebo, Mike Vax and Martin Headman. Mills was playing in Dixieland bands at age 11, and in his 20s studied in Ray Brown's jazz classes.
Art Springs (bass and tenor) first performed with The Whales a few times in 1986 and played on one track on the first album, but he didn't become a fulltime member until 1987. Art's first professional gig was in high school as part of a soul band, Mission Impossible, that opened for Wilson Pickett. He went on to help found the Adolphe Sax Ensemble and later played for five years with the Trimble Saxophone Quartet. Springs graduated from college with a degree in German Literature.
Kristen Strom (soprano, alto and kazoo) was added to the Whales' lineup in 1990. She has performed with the Temptations, Natalie Cole, The Four Tops, Manhattan Transfer, Indian sitarist Ashwin Batish, the San Jose Symphony and the jazz group Burning Bridges (she also has recorded with them). Strom has a BA Degree in music from San Jose State University and has studied woodwinds with Joe Henderson, Mel Martin and Victor Morosco.
Kelley Hart Jenkins (sopranino, soprano and alto) joined the band in 1994. She earned her BA Degree in Music at the University of Northern Colorado where she won numerous competitions. She continued her education at the University of Southern California and won a competition there. Kelley taught junior high band and orchestra for eight years, and currently teaches saxophone at San Diego State University. She performed with the Pacific Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra among others.
Kevin Stewart (baritone) was added to the Whales in 1999. He began playing sax in 1976, received his Music Performance Degree at the University of Michigan, toured and recorded three CDs with the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet, played with The Temptations and Chanticleer, and is the Professor of Saxophone at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. Stewart also has performed with many chamber and symphony orchestras based in San Francisco, Detroit and Rochester.
"I guess I'm prejudiced," says Stevens, "but I think the saxophone is a great instrument. I t's a newcomer of a horn instrument since it was just invented 150 years ago as an attempt to marry a reed mouthpiece like the woodwinds use with a conical-bore brass-bell instrument. But boy, did the concept work! People are always coming up to us after a show to say they can't believe we can sound so orchestral with only six saxes. We work hard to get a rich, vibrant, cohesive group sound with the full harmonic range and overtones stacking upon each other for a musical synergistic effect. And you know what we always say, 'Hear the whales, save the saxophone'."
