John Harle review – jazz explorer makes mongrel music modern

Milton Court, LondonIn a set of new bespoke compositions for saxophone, the jazz veteran is best on the pieces that highlight his bel canto lines and soulful sideThe saxophone has always been a mongrel instrument – half woodwind, half brass – which is possibly why it is so heavily associated with a mongrel music such as jazz. Conversely, John Harle has tended to explore a non-jazz canon of music for the instrument, from Debussy to Michael Nyman, via Marc Almond, Elvis Costello and co