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. 

Intelligent & Knowledgable People

Robert Paul Wolff on his very, very . . . . blog, The Philosopher's Stone, writes:

Johnathan suggested I check out election.princeton.edu, which I did, discovering that this technically sophisticated blogsite, run by a Princeton Biophysicist, Sam Wang, has even rosier projections for Obama than Nate Silver or Votamatic.  Now, I have already had my say about my shameless searching out of experts who confidently predict that what I want to happen will happen [which, as I pointed out, is almost the functional definition of a religion.]  But I took a few moments to read some of the scores of comments and comments on comments that had been posted on Sam Wang's site, and once again I was powerfully struck by the wealth of intelligent, knowledgeable people out there capable of speaking more thoughtfully, with more detail, and in a more balanced and reflective manner than any of the well-known paid opinion-mongers who clog the airwaves and the Op Ed pages of the major newspapers.  This seems to be true no matter what subject you choose to Google, regardless of whether it is an arcane specialty or a matter of common interest. 

I certainly hope Wang, Silver, and/or Votamatic are right in their predictions. As I mentioned to my wife this morning: If Obama loses, there'll be no Christmas this year.

Professor Wolff's comments are always insightful. In addition to being a philosopher and blogger, he's a viola player! Take a peek:
http://robertpaulwolff.blogspot.com/
election.princeton.edu
votamatic.org

Bootstraps? Not in Willard's and Paul-Ayn's Hole

Bobby Hutcherson's Components and Dialogue this Sunday afternoon. Peeked at Bertrand Russell Society members' back-and-forth's on the Presidential Election. Some members can't vote for Obama because they feel betrayed by him. That's not a good reason to vote for Willard Romney, is it?
  I think not.
  I believe it's more important to vote against Willard than not to vote for Obama; even if the latter has been "Wall Street's puppet", according to Prof. West; aren't we all "puppets" in many ways?
  No reason to let Willard and Paul-Ayn finish us off.
  Why?
  It makes one feel like a man, like a rational person, instead of feeling like an Ayn in Willard's hole without a bootstrap, by George. Like an Paul-Ayn-hole.
  I'll be glad when this political puppet/dumb show is over. Then Congress can get back to its obstructionist business of not taking care of our Nation's business.

  It's ...[trifles]... all the way down. 

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