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Alba
The title of this piece comes from a genre of medieval poetry, with the word alba referring to the whiteness of dawn. These medieval poems describe the parting of lovers when the sun rises, and evoke feelings of despair, loss and regret, emotions which are very much in the tango Nuevo spirit. The piece is in ternary form, with a sustained saxophone line that unfolds through the outer sections and the central part being characterized by a series of restless harp chords.

Histoire du Tango
Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla was best known for his compositions inspired by the Tango. The composer fused elements of jazz and contemporary classical music into this dance form to create a new style derived from the music he heard and played throughout his life. Although early in his career the composer earned a living in Buenos Aires as a bandoneon player, he did not initially include the Tango in his compositions. During his study with Nadia Boulanger in Europe, Piazzolla found his voice by incorporating the dance style that he knew so well with other elements of his musical heritage to great success.

Histoire du Tango is one of Piazzolla's most well-known works. It has been performed by a large variety of different instrumental combinations and traces the history of the tango through a several time periods and showcases the dance's development throughout the 20th century. Piazzolla states that Bordel 1900 "is full of grace and liveliness. It paints a picture of the good natured chatter of the French, Italian, and Spanish women who peopled these bordellos as they teased the policeman, thieves, sailors and riffraff who came to see them. This is a lively tango." The tango had changed by 1930, reflected in the lyricism of the second movement. Here the composer states "People stopped dancing it as they did in 1900, preferring instead simply to listen to it. It became more musical and more romantic." Night Club 1960 corresponds to Piazzolla's return to Argentina after spending two years in New York experimenting with the mixture of jazz and tango. The lively and rhythmic movement suggests the renewed energy that began a new chapter in the composers life.

The Girl From Ipanema
Antonio Carlos Jobim was a Brazilian composer whose compositions in the Bossa Nova (New Song) style gained international popularity in the early 1960s. These works, recorded by jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and Joao and Astrud Gilberto on their album Getz/Gilberto, won the Grammy Award for album of the year in 1965. The Girl from Ipanema is probably his most enduring bossa nova, which describes the longing for a "tall and tan and young and lovely" girl who "looks straight ahead not at he."

African Dance Suite
The African Dance Suite is a three-movement work that explores the diversity of African music through its unique rhythmic and melodic elements. Kiganda, an area of Uganda known for it's wooden xylophone music, was the inspiration for the first movement. African xylophone playing often uses a musical style called "hocket" where two or three instrumentalists play single notes in quick succession to create a single combined melody. I first heard this technique on a record of traditional African music and the idea to write a composition inspired by this technique has stuck with me since that time. Soliloquy is a slow middle movement that is a contemplation of the hardship that has befallen the African continent throughout history. Morocco uses traditional scale patterns and an unusual time signature to suggest the improvisations of instrumentalists playing on a street corner in northern Africa.

Romance
Yusef Lateef is best known as a jazz saxophonist and performer of reed instruments from around the world. In 2010 he was named an American Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. Lateef is an innovator in the African American tradition of autophysiopsychic music - that which comes from one's spritual, physical and emotional self. His Romance for Harp and Soprano Saxophone explores a broad range of musical styles in three movements.

Tango Etude no. 6
Another work by Astor Piazzolla, these tango etudes were adapted for saxophone in 1988 for French saxophonist Claude DeLangle. Tango Etude no. 6 is the last of the etudes and is indicated "with anxiety." A haunting meno mosso provides a brief respite from the intesity of the piece.