Charles Rosen (R.I.P.)

"Understanding music means feeling comfortable with it – taking pleasure in music is the most obvious sign of comprehension." Charles Rosen

Charles Rosen  - pianist and music, literary and fine arts scholar - died on 9 December 2012 at the age of 85. Since reading his The Classical Style in the summer of 1972, I have returned often to Mr Rosen's writings and recorded piano performances - his recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Carter and Boulez. I won't mention his other wonderful books, except to note that his last volume, Freedom and the Arts: Essays on Music and Literature, 2012, is providing me with expected knowledge and pleasure. 

  I think Michel de Montaigne - the original blogger - was one of Charles Rosen's favorite authors. And Mr Rosen's writing displays many of Montaigne's fine qualities. I particularly admire the feeling that I get when reading Rosen that I [the reader] am a colleague of Rosen's, involved with him in his search.

I've hesitated to blog on about the things that I love and the people I admire in light of the unspeakable Newtown Ct. tragedy. It makes me very sad to think that twenty young children and six caring and heroic adults were murdered by a young person bearing his parent's assault weapon and automatic pistols. Music and books  - feeling, interpretation, learning and understanding, the search thereof - human and humane pursuits seem to be beyond our reach. It was our hope that children armed with love, understanding, and knowledge as provided by caring adults and schools would be sufficient for their flourishing and well-being. It's not happening.      

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/10/charles-rosen

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/arts/music/charles-rosen-pianist-polymath-and-author-dies-at-85.html?pagewanted=all

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/the-gate-is-open.html

Guitar Notions Revisited

Since the Mary Halvorson Quintet's performance last Sunday [see my previous post], I've been thinking about the music that I heard on that occasion, about my negative reaction to Halvorson's music, and my guitar-aversion (what back in the days would have been called a guitar hangup).
  So, I decided to spend most of my day listening to guitarists of the moment - Derek Bailey(2000), with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Calvin Weston; Anthony Braxton and Fred Frith (2005); Joe Morris (1999), with Karen Borca, Rob Brown, and Andrea Parkins; James Blood Ulmer (1991), with David Murray, Amin Ali, and Cornell W. Rochester; Kevin O'Neil, with Anthony Braxton's "Standards" Group.
  Halvorson's music was not avant-guarde in any way. At best it was retrograde music. Call it New York New Music-Scene or whatever; but it was not avant-anything, nor was it modern. Gil Mellé's 1956 music with Joe Cinderella on guitar is modern. Ornette Coleman's 1975 Body Meta with Tacuma, Ellerbee and Nix on guitars is avant-guarde. Herbie Mann and Sam Most with Joe Puma on guitar is modern. Roy Eldridge with Ronnie Ball on piano is modern. Etc. Music labels are for marketing products and mis-leading consumers. If the music is well-played, it may be worthy of one's attention. Tip-toeing around one's instrument, playing uninteresting scales, fidgeting with technical gadgets doesn't result in creative music or an interesting performance.
  I heard Ornette's Body Meta group in Ann Arbor - exciting, propulsive, extremely well-played music. These good-making characteristics are also evident the guitar-featured music that I listened to today, especially Blood Ulmer's recording - "As Serious as Your Life", as Val Wilmer's title goes. Pat Metheny and Ornette burned together too. By the way Jamaaladeen Tacuma is an outstanding bass guitarist and composer. Fred Frith (noted above) I heard in solo performance at the Guelph Jazz Festival this year. His Cagean messing about was uninteresting to me. Joe Morris's Many Rings CD is very interesting because of the instrumentation - accordion, bassoon, alto & flute - and musicianship; it is very well-played chamber music.
  As I noted in my earlier Halvorson posting, the Quintet's performance took place at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio. The next three Jazz ensembles booked by the Wexner Center incorporate guitars. My music interests require neither a piano nor guitar - unless they're happening, no tip-toeing, scales or tricks. Except for guitar-economics and portability the guitar preference perplexes me from an aesthetic point of view. Is it because there are so many guitars around? because everyone plays 'air-guitar'? because late-night TV shows feature bands with guitars? because audiences think that they understand guitar-based music? Whenever I see three guitars without Ornette Coleman I shudder.
  It must be my guitar hangup. Oh well, I can hang with Blood Ulmer and Murray: three guitars and Ornette: Morris & company; Mann, Most & Puma; Mellé & Cinderella . . . .  

Dave Brubeck (R.I.P.)

Dave Brubeck has passed away at the age of 91 years. His music was very important to me during my formative years. One of my early vinyl purchases was a 10 inch red Fantasy recording of the Brubeck Octet. I return often to his creative music - Jazz Goes to College, Jazz at Oberlin and College of the Pacific. "Balcony Rock", "These Foolish Things", and "All the Things You Are" still knock me out. Brubeck was both a creative music innovator and a decent human being. Mingus admired his music. Miles made disparaging remarks about his music, but managed to record Brubeck's "The Duke".
  Guardian obituary:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/05/dave-brubeck

Taylor Ho Bynum New Yorker tribute:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/12/the-brilliance-of-dave-brubeck.html 

Pepper Adams - Detroit Years: 1930 - 1958

The late baritone saxophone master Pepper Adams' website contains a fascinating description of, among other things, the creative music scene in Detroit (and Highland Park). It shows who was gigging with whom and where the music action was happening. Take an envious look:

http://www.pepperadams.com/Chronology/EarlyYears.html

Mary Halvorson Quintet - Guitar Notion

I first heard Mary Halvorson in 2007 with Anthony Braxton’s Diamond Wall Trio at the Guelph Jazz Festival. This wonderful trio included the fabulous Taylor Ho Bynum on trumpet. 

  On Sunday, 1 December 2012 my wife, a friend and I heard Halvorson’s quintet at the Wexner Center on The Ohio State University campus. The quintet consisted of Halvorson, guitar; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Jon Irabagon, alto saxophone, John Hébert, bass; and Ches Smith, drums. The bassist and drummer, we are told, form the nucleus of Halvorson’s groups. Of the quintet that I heard on Sunday, only the acoustic bass of Hébert invited appreciation and admiration. I suspect the other musicians are quite competent. But I found Halvorson’s guitar in the way of the music most of the time. A drummer can often provide the rhythmic glue to even the most disparate musical elements and desperate aspirations of the musicians and their audience. But Ches Smith’s percussion aspirations weren’t up to the task. The trumpet and alto saxophone never had a proper chance to make music.

  Mary Halvoson is reported to be a conscientious composer. Her charts were much on display on stage. Indeed, it appeared to me, at least, that what the audience was subjected to was a futile sight-reading exercise or music exorcism.

 There’s no need to pursue this line any further. I thought the music was awful. Halvorson’s ‘compostions‘ were full of off-putting gimmicks and visual tricks. I quite dislike guitar-notions such as Halvorson’s. I prefer not being a citizen of any guitar nation.

          

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