Tackling the classic (and lesser-known) numbers from the Hollywood Songbook backed by a saxophone quartet sounds a bit mad.

Yet, peeling back the logic, it makes more sense: you get the brassiness of the big band that this music was written for, but in a stripped-back way that lets the vocalist do subtle things with phrasing and tonal colour.

Soprano Ali McGregor and an incredibly energetic Signum Saxophone Quartet proved the concept masterfully at the premiere of Musica Viva’s Hollywood Songbook tour in Canberra on election night.

Signum Saxophone Quartet: Hollywood Songbook. Photo © Peter Hislop.

The story of Hollywood – a new creative rise that led it to dominate popular culture at a global level like no other historical phenomenon – is, of course, one of diaspora. Europe shattered, and the United States provided new immigrants from many backgrounds with opportunities to make new lives, unconstrained by the social barriers many faced in their countries of origin.

A melting pot of creativity around the movies demanded soundtracks, and these came from both traditional and new sources. This is the canvas Artistic Director Paul Kildea and McGregor rendered in this show, framed by...