Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet

The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet launched as an experimental jazz ensemble built around saxophonists Amy Denio, Jessica Lurie, Marjorie DeMuynck, and Barbara J. Marino together with drummer Will Dowd. The name honors musician Tipton, a longtime veteran of the jazz circuit whose identity as a woman who had lived as a man surfaced only after her death. Their first album, Saxhouse, arrived in 1992. Three years later, at the time of Box, Marjorie DeMuynck and Will Dowd had been succeeded by saxophonist Maya Johnson and drummer Pam Barger. Make It Funky God appeared in 1997. Amy Denio exited the following year, after which the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet disbanded.