Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time

Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time

I'm starting the third novel in Powell's twelve part series of novels. Years ago I set out to read, and finish, Marcel Proust's mega Remembrance of Things Past. I managed to slog through half of it - promising myself to finish reading it "soon".


I put off reading Anthony Powell's mega-Dance since it had been unfavorably compared to Proust's great work and I hadn't "finished" Proust. I must say that I am enjoying Powell's Dance very much - it's quite funny. In preparation for my having fun reading Powell I enjoyed the following treats: Edward St. Aubyn's The Patrick Melrose Novels (both the printed and cable-TV versions), the BBC adaptation of Powell's Dance, and Downton Abby - my wife finally persuaded me - to my delight - to watch it along with The Durrells in Corfu (another TV delight). 

I guess I'm a sucker for multipart things. Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet was another obsession of mine many, many years ago.  

Summer Musics

Forty or so years ago, in the summer I would pick through my vinyl record collection, selecting recordings that I thought I wouldn't listen to again. I'd take the selected records to Peter Dale's fabulous Car City Records in St Clair Shores, Michigan to sell for cash or to trade for vinyl recordings. I don't think I ever took the cash option. Peter Dale sold his store to Bob Setlick and retired. Later Peter came out of retirement to own and operate Encore Music in Ann Arbor. In between my dealings with Car City Records and Encore Music there was Steve Bergman's fabulous store in Ann Arbor, Schoolkids' Records and Schoolkids in Exile. In 2011, Peter Dale retired again and sold Encore Music to his employees. Steve Bergman closed Schoolkids also in 2011. Encore Music is still operating, thank goodness!
     Ann Arbor! Many fond music memories: Eclipse Jazz Concerts, Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, Bird of Paradise, Once Festival (Robert Ashley, Eric Dolphy).... All gone.
     Meadowbrook: Mahler's 8th Symphony and Joni Mitchell with Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Brecker brothers. Goodness!
     Detroit: The great Bluiett-Jackson-Thiam concert at the Serengeti, with quest Roy Brooks. David Murray Octet at Chene Park. Archie Shepp at the DIA. The Arditti String Quartet concert - at Orchestra Hall - Schoenberg and Kurtag, Ouch! .
     Summertime Music Listening. My earliest music-listing memories reside in the year  ca. 1949 when I was eight years old. I was awed by Coleman Hawkins' Talk of the Town and Stuffy and Woody Herman's Lemon Drop - can't imagine what "lemon drop" encoded. I was also in awe of the 16 inch 78 rpm discs that encoded my mother's friend's operas.
     When we lived in Grosse Pointe music was accessible to us - recordings, concerts, clubs. Columbus, Ohio is where we have lived for the past 25 plus years. As a friend of my wife remarked, It's not Ann Arbor. It's not Detroit either. Both positives. Music and pizza are northern delights. I asked a deli owner in Columbus how he managed such bread-like bread. He replied, I have it sent down from Cleveland. I met Pierre Boulez in Cleveland. I met Gunther Schuller and Lucas Foss in Columbus. I still favor Cleveland - Music, Books and Food.
     Back to Hot Fun in the Summertime.
     Mahler and Clarinet music. Mahler's 6th Symphony and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet.  Pianist Ivan Moravek's Debussy. Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 1. Grown-up music. Sublime music.
     Art Music, Improvised music? I'm sure there was lots of it in the summertime. There is right now. Ah! John Coltrane's My Favorite Things at Newport with Roy Haynes in Elvin Jones chair! Coltrane's My Favorite Things at the Village Gate in NYC with his sextet and Roland Kirk has been the ultimate music experience of my life, August 1961.
     Perhaps I'll add to these reflections later. As Jalen Rose would say, Best to get them on wax.  It's been a while. 
      

Summer Time is Mahler-Time

Composers Pierre Boulez & Rocco DiPietro and Ray White

I never cared for Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "Titan" until I listened attentively recently to Pierre Boulez's DGG recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Such detail, such clarity - I've read that Boulez's Mahler recordings are conceptually the antithesis of Leonard Bernstein's much admired Mahler recordings. My first Mahler recordings were Maurice Abravanel's Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Utah Symphony and Leonard Bernstein's Mahler No. 7 with the New York Philharmonic - recordings that I still admire.  

It's not only Mahler-Time, but Mahler's time - think of Fin-De-Siècle Vienna.

Derek Raymond's The Crust on its Uppers

I've just finished Derek Raymond's 1962 London crime novel The Crust on its Uppers. It's a novel about three Etonian/Oxonian morries of the SOHO manor who become involved in a slush scheme. This fascinating work begins with a three page Glossary of poetic underworld argot.

Read it whilst learning a new language.

Diary -- The Minor Key

22 May 2017
Today, I'm engaged in listening to the 1959 Live at The Blackhawk recordings by Shelly Manne, leader and drums, and His Men -- Joe Gordon, trumpet, Richie Kamuca, tenor saxophone, Victor Feldman, piano, Monty Budwig, bass. These outstanding recordings are 4 hours and 40 minutes in duration.
23 May 2017
Sonny Stitt knew more tunes than anybody. Miles Davis and his quintet, featuring Sonny Stitt on alto and tenor saxophones, appeared at the Minor Key in Detroit, Mi. in May and September, 1960. In that same year the John Coltrane quartet and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers appeared at the Minor Key on multiple occasions. I saw Messrs. Coltrane and Blakey perform numerous times at the Minor Key. I remember (?) seeing Miles Davis at least twice there--once with Sonny Stitt (fabulous playing by Stitt) and once with J. J. Johnson.   

Detroit Music, Musings

Today, 20 May 2017 I needed some Detroit music. I started with trumpeter Donald Byrd and his Blue Note recording Off to the Races featuring Jackie McLean (alto saxophone), Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone), Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass), and A. T., Art Taylor (drums).
    Next I went to the Donald Byrd Sextet with Yusef Lateef (tenor), Bernard McKinney (euphonium) and Barry Harris (piano), Alvin Jackson (Milt's brother, bass) and Frank Gant (drums). This live recording was took place at The New World Stage in Detroit (Highland Park?) on August 23, 1955. Circa 1957/8, friends and I peeked in on the music happening at The New World Stage in Highland Park. Abe Woodley (vibes) and the group were performing Bird's Blues for Alice, one of my favorite Charlie Parker compositions. I heard Donald Byrd perform at the Minor Key club circa 1960. When I was in New York in 1961, living in a loft at 326 Bowery, I ran into Barry Harris on my way to the Original Five Spot Cafe. We were both on our way the check out Ornette Coleman who was performing at the Five Spot.
    In the fall of 1961, a former girlfriend and I walked from her house on Puritan Street in Highland Park past Klein's Show Bar on 12th Street one evening. Yusef Lateef was performing at Klein's that evening -- sadly we keep walking. Before Yusef Lateef left Detroit for New York, I had the pleasure of taking with him over coffee at the Minor Key. I remember the night/morning at the Minor Key when Yusef Lateef got into a profound tenor saxophone session with Clifford Jordan -- Detroit verses Chicago.
    Order your copy of Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit 1920 - 1960 by Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert (University of Michigan Press).    

Misha Mengelberg (RIP)

The Dutch pianist and composer Misha Mengelberg, age 81, has died. I best remember him as the pianist on Eric Dolphy's 1964 recording "Last Date". Misha Mengelberg was a force in the Dutch avant-garde music scene.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/arts/music/misha-mengelberg-dead-dutch-jazz-pianist-composer.html?ref=todayspaper