Tongue Meat is a theatrical work for SATB saxophones, flute, female storyteller/actress, and slide projector, performed by the Avocado Saxophone Quartet under the composer’s direction.

Based on a Swahili folk tale of the same name, the work follows a royal wife as she recounts the unforeseen consequences of her husband’s ambitious wife-swapping scheme. Part theatre piece and part chamber work, it combines spoken narration with richly characterful and idiomatic writing for saxophone ensemble.

Some of the musical material was adapted from an earlier work, Sax Quartet No. 1, though Tongue Meat has since come to stand as an independent composition in its own right. It was premiered at Leicester’s Y Theatre in 1998 as part of the New Works Festival.