Mozart , Haydn & Beethoven - Piano Trios

In the summer of 1973, Charles Rosen introduced me to the world of of Joseph Haydn's piano trios. Rosen in his classic 1971 work, The Classical Style, devotes a chapter to the piano trio. His Arnold Schoenberg, 1975 and the very large The Romantic Generation, 1995 along with Critical Entertainments, 2000 and Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist, 2002 are kept at my side and  consulted often. The Schoenberg book along with Allen Shawn's Arnold Schoenberg's Journey, 2002 are the best places for an amateur (in the non-sport, French meaning of the term) to get next to Schoenberg's wonderful music.
  My introduction, musically, was through the Beaux Arts Trio - Menahem Pressler, Isidore Cohen and Bernard Greenhouse (Pressler was D. D. Jackson's piano teacher at Indiana University). Rosen writes that the Haydn trios are primarily compositions for the solo fortepiano, solo violin and accompanying cello. On page 352 of The Classical Style, Rosen writes:

The fact that these trios are essentially solo works makes possible their greatest quality, a feeling of improvisation almost unique in Haydn's work, and, indeed, rarely found in any of the three great classic composers. Haydn was a composer who needed the piano to write music; these trios seem to give us Haydn at work. They have a spontaneous quality that the composer rarely sought elsewhere; there inspiration seems relaxed and unforced, at times almost disorganized, when compared with the quartets and symphonies.

We have complete sets of the trios by the Beaux Arts Trio, Van Swieten Trio, Haydn Trio Eisenstadt. The Van Swieten employs fortepiano and violin and cello of Haydn's time, and includes three trios with flute instead of violin. The Beaux Arts and Eisenstadt trios employ modern instruments.
  I never admired Mozart as much as Haydn and Beethoven. In my later years I have come to admire Mozart. For chamber music there are none greater than these three - Bach's pulling at my coat, as I write this. It's exciting, and enlightening, to listen to the piano trios of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven in chronological order - Mozart says, "Here they are, wrapped tight for you"; Haydn says, "Dig this, we're jammin'"; Beethoven says, "Damn that, here's how they shall and must go!"
  I'm thinking of Eddie Jefferson and James Moody and their "Birdland Story" piece here. Nothing else for me to say.

 

Music Discoveries - Jacintha & Beethoven's Oboe Trios

Today I discovered the vocalist Jacintha (Jacintha Abisheganaden) and Beethoven’s Trios for Two Oboes and Cor Anglais. 

  Jacintha treats standards. I ran into her beautiful vocal stylings of once popular songs while searching for Ben Webster hits on the internet. Miss Abisheganden hails from Singapore and studied Creative Writing at Harvard. She recorded a CD in appreciation of Ben Webster. Her voice and interpretations of popular songs are certainly up to the Frog’s standards. Try her “Round Midnight” and “Moon River” - the piano solo on the latter touches on Cecil Taylor! Many of her tunes are available on You Tube. She pays close attention to a song’s lyrics and tends to take things quite slowly. Teddy Edwards’s saxophone is featured on a number of the the recordings. 

  Take a listen on You Tube. If you like The Music performed with care and devotion, Jacintha Abisheganaden should knock you out.

  After dealing with Beethoven’s Op. 131 String Quartet in the wonderful film, A Last Quartet, discovering the above mentioned ‘Lighter Works’ suited me perfectly. I’m usually down with almost anything featuring clarinet or oboe; but two oboes and English Horn: heavenly-stuff, whether light, heavy, or what-not.

  Soul-music! Couldn't resist, try this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0OfmO1hiIU

A Late Quartet - Life in C ♯ minor

Robert Paul Wolff directed my attention to A Late Quartet, a fine film that treats music, musicians, love, and personal loss - see the link below. This afternoon my wife and I went to see the film. I was quite moved by it, I was ready to weep from the start of the film; and I remained weepy throughout the film.
  There are very few films which treat music and music-making intelligently. A Late Quartet conveys what it's like to be a serious musician and what being a member of a chamber-music ensemble requires. There were no Ken Russell light-my-fire tricks employed here. The hard work involved in the performance of art music is very well displayed in the film.
  The performances by the principle actors are compelling, especially those of Christoper Walken and Seymour Hoffman which are outstanding.
  The Brentano String Quartet performs the film's music, Beethoven's Op. 13 in C ♯ minor; the film's other principal character.

http://robertpaulwotartlff.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-night-at-movies.html

http://www.michigandaily.com/arts/11late-quartet-review26

Teddy Wilson - Jam Session Aesthetic

WKCR, Columbia University’s wonderful FM and Internet radio station, devoted a whole day this Sunday to the music of Teddy Wilson (1912 - 1986). This magical pianist is best known for his work with Benny Goodman,  the small groups with B.G., Lionel Hampton, and Gene Krupa. Teddy Wilson is a superb pianist and consummate piano  stylist - I rely here on Art Blakey’s distinction between a stylist and instrumentalist, which he illustrated by his saying that Miles Davis is a trumpet stylist, while Clifford Brown is a trumpet player. Teddy Wilson is both. I invoke the present tense when discussing musical genus, the is of recorded music.

  When I think of Teddy Wilson, I think of Teddy Wilson’s small groups - the groups that featured Billie Holiday and a host of other geniuses: for example, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Chu Berry, Ben Webster, Buster Bailey, Vido Musso, Harry Carney, Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, Big Sid Catlett, Charlie Ventura, Misses Fitzgerald, Ward, Carpenter, Sullivan, and The Divine One.

  As has been emphasized by Gunther Schuller and Phil Schaap, in Wilson’s small groups the lady singers were an integral part of the jam session aesthetic that Mr Wilson was about - instrumentalists and singers improvised. And Billie Holiday incorporated the Wilson jam session aesthetic in her small group recordings, both her Columbia and Verve recordings.

   Mr Wilson is of the glide and stride college of pianists - seminars offered by Jelly Roll Morton and Earl Hines; post-graduate work with Art Tatum (just a taste); and the European classical piano tradition. The recording that Wilson made with Lester Young on Verve of “I didn’t know what time it was” is fine example of Mr Wilson’s piano technique and styling. This recording also features Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickerson, and Jo Jones. Prez and Mr Wilson both glide on top of the music, a perfect meringue for a perfect jam session.


P.S. Ethan Iverson on Teddy Wilson:
http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2012/11/bits-and-bytes.html

PPS I'm quite enjoying the 10 CD Teddy Wilson Jumpin' For Joy set from

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0014WSX34/ref=sr_1_5_np_1_main_olp?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1354729624&sr=1-5&condition=new

It cost less than $20US, including shipping from Europe.

Andrew Cyrille - Special People

I remember meeting Andrew Cyrille for the first time - was it 1997? I picked him up at the Port Columbus, Ohio airport. he was performing with David Murray, Oliver Lake (one-half of The World Saxophone Quartet), and Santi Debriano at Ohio Dominican College (now a university). Mr. Cyrille is a muscular, compact man. When I tried to lift his cymbals, he said to me, "You'd better let me handle them - I'm used to lifting them". They were very heavy. Percussionists travel with their cymbals and drum-sticks, while assembling the remainder of the drum kit from local sources.
  Andrew Cyrille is a master musician, a master percussionist, and teacher. He played with Coleman Hawkins, Cecil Taylor, and, more recently as co-leader, with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman in the group TrioThree. I won't try to describe Cyrille's percussion magic, except by way of a hearing example - a sound experiment.
  There's a Jimmy Smith CD, Cool Blues, that has Smith's regular drummer, Donald Bailey on tracks 4-8. On tracks 1-3 Art Blakey is the drummer. David Bailey is a fine drummer - very subtle musician. But when Art Blakey occupies the drum chair, there pulse-magic - Blakey fills the musical space with pop. When Blakey doesn't fill the space, when, as it seems to me, he's creating rhythmic suspense; he surprises us with a rhythmic constellation consisting of the high-hat and sock cymbals with simple quiet rim shots on the snare drum. It's beats of 1, 2 & 3 then no 4. The listener adds the 4th beat that Blakey withholds. This way Blakey and the listener collaborate in creating a rhythmic pulse. I'm listening to Jimmy Smith's recording of the The Sermon.
  Compare the Billy Hart interview with Ethan Iverson http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/interview-with-billy-hart.html. Donald Bailey and Jimmy Cobb are time keepers par excellence. Art Blakey, Billy Hart, and Andrew Cyrille seem, to my amateur’s ears, play in and out of time. Read what Whitney Balliett has to say in his piece, “Roach, Blakey & P. J. Jones”. Balliett was obsessed with drummers. Among his favorite swing-masters were Jimmy Crawford and “Big” Sid Catlett,  Jo Jones, and Elvin Jones. Balliett didn’t care for Max Roach’s “typewritter style” of playing; while Roy Haynes’s playing tended to be too loud.
  Andrew Cyrille is a pulse-master in the Blakey-sense. The recordings of Andrew Cyrille with Jeanne Lee and Jimmy Lyons, with Ted Daniel and David Ware (R.I.P), with Jimmy Lyons, and Trio Three are worth attending to. Like Art Blakey, Andrew Cyrille creates his own groove; he propels the musicians and the music both inside the pocket and out.
  Pete La Roca, another master percussionist, died on Monday, at the age of 74. See Ethan Iverson's tribute. http://dothemath.typepad.com/
  Andy Hamilton's appreciation of Pete La Roca:
http://www.andyhamilton.org.uk/andy_pdfs/Swings_The_Thing.pdf

Relaxin' with Lee [Bird's tune] and J.S. Bach

I've been trying to get over having to attend to Republican racism, lies, and stupidity; to the hateful rants of the G.O.P.'s avatars of culture, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, Donald Trump, and others. Regrettably I had become a political junkie. So I'm hoping Charles Parker and J. S. Bach will help me break the spell that has entranced me over the past month.
  I do worry about Mr. Obama's willingness to compromise with the Republicans. The notion of a "fiscal-cliff" is the same one-note Republican chant---We Republicans have nothing to offer but fear itself.
  Go on! with your Nugent-Rock-Trump suckers for millionaires.