About The Six Winds
In 1976 the Dutch baritone saxofonist Ad Peijnenburg started a sax quartet called The Four Winds. As it turned out, this quartet was one of the first improvising sax quartets on the European scene. Soon the desire arose to bring the whole sax family together, and so Peijnenburg founded in 1984 The Six Winds, the first saxophone sextet in the world.
The way in which the group works remained the same over the years: the members come together during a certain period (mostly a couple of weeks) to rehearse and give concerts. Every tour they play a completely new program and all the compositions are composed by the members of the ensemble. The Six Winds see themselves explicitly as a collective: although based in Holland (always at least four members are Dutch), The Six Winds was and is an international group, having as its members musicians like Bill Smith (Canada), John Tchicai (Denmark, USA) and, in 2001, Kazutoki Umezu (Japan) as well as Andrew White (USA).
The Six Winds has been always a group of people with varied musical interests and backgrounds, which brings a particular flavour to the sound of the ensemble. As a pioneer ensemble it presents a wealth of experience, resulting in a broad spectrum of techniques, spheres and moods. The eighteen years of history of the ensemble is well recorded on two lps and six cds.