Douglas Walton in his 1998 New York Times 'review' of Edmund Wilson's The Higher Jazz remarks that Wilson's book is (to the reviewer) "all of it mildly engaging, but never very captivating." I found Wilson's The Higher Jazz both engaging and captivating - not very, very nor mildly; just engaging and captivating. I've always admired Edmund Wilson. I read his Axel's Castle and Memoirs of Hecate County many years ago. These works along with the Wilson-Nabokov exchange (argument) in the New York Review of Books were foundational for me in terms of my literary growing up. I admired Wilson because his love of literature was evident in his writing. More importantly, he made his reader - this reader - love literature too. Sven Birkerts exerts a similar Wilsonian effect on me also. Birkert's admiration of Eric Dolphy's music also scores points with me.
Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire prompted me once again to attend to Edmund Wilson's The Higher Jazz. On Saturday, May 18 the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan presented performances of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's L'Histoire Du Soldat. Pierrot Lunaire plays a significant part in Wilson's unfinished novel. The Ann Arbor musicians performed both works expertly. The soprano Jennifer Goltz was especially impressive in the Schoenberg.
Cleo Laine, back in the vinyl-day, made a recording of Pierrot Lunaire performing its vocal parts in English. Laine's vinyl recording is out of print. Fortunately there is a fine recent compact disc of Pierrot Lunaire by soprano Lucy Shelton performed in German and English. Shelton also performs Schoenberg's opus 20, Herzgewächse, written for soprano, harmonium, celesta, and harp - a very charming predecessor to Pierrot.
David Schiff in his The Ellington Century connects Schoenberg and Ellington for us. His book opened my ears. Ellington and Schoenberg, The Higher Jazz.
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