Timothy McAllister and Liz Ames Release a Lively Set of Pieces

Timothy McAllister is a world-renowned wind soloist and a well-known saxophonist who has joined forces with legendary pianist Liz Ames to create a record that breathes exuberant light into several works by different composers.

The pieces of music across the entire Project Encore, Volume 2 album are more than impressive. They include piano and both Alto and soprano saxophone.

All the pieces are a blend of several composers, including award-winning TV composers like Adam Schoenberg, as well as Grammy and Pulitzer-winning Wynton Marsalis, among others. Each piece chosen from these composers represents a vibrant and slightly outside-the-box representation of the pieces written by those composers.

There are plenty of tracks where the pianos have a bounce to them, and the saxophone follows suit as the instruments bounce off of each other and create this conversation between the two.

This is something that happens often throughout the record and is something that you get not just used to, but more addicted to in a sense. After a while, you want to hear more of the instruments communicating with each other and just feeling alive.

Some pieces come through with such a beautifully heavy hand like "Dance";  a track is performed on the piano with such gusto and a gorgeous level of energy that you sort of soak all of that in.

A lot of these pieces come through in a way that puts you right there in the moment with them.

There are no two that are exactly alike in the sense that each one has its own vibe and aesthetic to deliver, but you also have this almost confluent and incredibly bright Sonic resonance that these pieces deliver, and I found that to be refreshing.

Pieces like "Encore" let piano and saxophone dance around each other, and it turns out to be such a colorful set of sounds, especially the way songs unfold and flow.

A lot of these pieces have very unique flows to them. But again, they managed to put you right there in the moment in terms of that energy and liveliness. You want to know where they're going. You want to know where they will end up.

Listening to these pieces is the same as watching the scene of a film in a sense. Or watching a situation between two people unfold.

It's just something you can't peel yourself away from because again, the instruments become almost like characters.

Again, this set of pieces includes a variety of composers, and Timothy aimed to create something dedicated to the dynamic works of living composers, leaning on the belief that classical programming often focuses on a lot of older works and composers.

Wanting to bring fresh composers to the limelight more than they are, Timothy focused on works from brilliant and current composers instead of the classics.

You can hear this beautiful and colorful vibrancy in each of these pieces, and the full release spans an amazing 19 tracks, so there's plenty for you to take in.

Take a deep dive into this record as soon as you can, and I'm sure you will certainly not regret it in any way.

These are outstanding pieces performed by renowned artists with passions and loves for their instruments, along with contemporary composition.

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