At the World Saxophone Congress “Sax Open” this year, one of the greatest sax quartets was brought back to life. It was the first time in 18 years that Itchy Fingers had performed and also marked the 30th anniversary of their first ever concert.
Itchy Fingers was the brainchild of flautist, saxophonist and composer Mike Mower. Originally starting out on flute, Mike actually taught himself saxophone and improvisation whilst studying classical flute at the Royal Academy in London. The late start didn’t slow Mike down though – he very quickly went on to win national competitions with his jazz ensembles as a saxophonist.
The sax quartet grew out of writing he was doing for a much larger group he called “Hiatus”. “I had written a saxophone ensemble introduction to some tunes for the band” says Mike. “I suddenly thought, this is great – why don’t I just keep the intro”.
Itchy Fingers was born and in 1986, went on to win the national “Jazz Sounds” competition in England performing Mike’s own compositions. They were later signed to Virgin Records and began a 10 year run of international touring that took them to 40 countries.
A new sound
The magic of Itchy Fingers was that it merged the saxophone quartet with jazz improvisation, outrageous arrangements and an exciting live performance. At live shows the members played all the arrangements by memory which meant they could move around the stage and interact with each other. It was different,
exciting, and energetic. Mike’s compositions pushed the players to their limits. The writing is complex and the tempos often blistering.
The original Itchy Fingers band play Yuppieville Rodeo
Lineup changes
The original members of Itchy Fingers were John Graham on soprano/alto, Howard Turner on baritone and Martin Speake on alto along with Mike Mower on tenor. Over the years though a number of the best sax players in England came through the group including Tim Garland and Dave O’Higgins.
However one of the most exciting players to join the band was Nigel Hitchcock. “We were playing a show in Venezuela and John Graham had an accident and broke his fingers” says Mike. “Our next show was at the World Sax Congress in Berlin and needed to find someone fast. We had heard of this great young player Nigel Hitchcock back in England. He agreed to do the show and actually memorised all of the music on the flight over! That first show with Nigel was amazing – and he was only 16 years old at the time! We knew we needed him in the group” says Mike.
Reloaded
After releasing 4 albums and performing hundreds of shows, Itchy Fingers disbanded in 1997 as Mike went on to write and produce albums for artists like James Galway, the NDR Radio Big Band and the BBC big band in England.
This year however, with encouragement of the German bari player Tini Tommasen, Itchy Fingers was brought back to life. “Tini is an amazing player and writer” says Mike. “She grew up listening to our Itchy Fingers albums and is kind of like the next generation for us”.
Tini convinced Mike and Nigel Hitchcock to join forces once again for a special performance at the World Saxophone Congress “Sax Open” in Strasbourg this July. They were joined by Björn Berger on tenor and the performance was amazing with blistering performances by all 4.
The group performed a bunch of Itchy Fingers “standards” including “Ford Fiasco”, “It’s Lovely Once You’re In” and “Yuppieville Rodeo”.
Tini Tomasen and Nigel Hitchcock
“Now that we have made a start, we are hoping to do more performances” say Mike, “although it’s tricky to get everyone in the same place”.
The music of Itchy Fingers has inspired a generation of players and these days their arrangements are played by quartets around the world. “I wanted to make the arrangements available to everyone and it’s such an honor to have so many young players still interested in them” says Mike.
Find out more:
Mike’s arrangements and other books are available from www.itchyfingers.com