I've been pursuing Mozart's music lately, especially his music for wind instruments. Charles Rosen directed me to Hermann Albert's massive 1515 page biography, W. A. Mozart. I bought my copy a few years ago at a great price. Today for $29.00 plus $3.99 for shipping it can be yours.
There are two problems for me. (1) I hurt my left wrist by frequently grabbing onto Cook & Morton's 1725 page The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. (2) Charles Rosen had a photographic memory; something I haven't got!
I shall press on though. I'll let you know about my wrist and memory.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
On Neglecting My Music - Johnny Hartman
Between surgical procedures, followups thereto, college basketball, reading too much; I've neglected my music. When I neglect my music, I get irritable - of course the US and world situations increase one's crankiness.
Thirty(?) years ago, when the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit was a quasi-going concern, Johnny Hartman with a trio sang to my wife and me for a couple of hours - there were at most eight people in the room. Mr. Hartman's recordings with John Coltrane's quartet are among the very few sublime vocal recordings in the jam session aesthetic. I'll drop a few names in this tradition: Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Kay Star, Rosemary Clooney, Fred Astaire, The Divine One - Sarah Vaughan, and Herb Jeffries.
This evening I've rediscovered Johnny Hartman's Songs From The Heart that features Howard McGee, trumpet with the Ralph Sharon Trio - sublime music.
http://rayesti-thoughtmatters.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-proof-is-in-jam-part-5-jukebox.html
Thirty(?) years ago, when the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit was a quasi-going concern, Johnny Hartman with a trio sang to my wife and me for a couple of hours - there were at most eight people in the room. Mr. Hartman's recordings with John Coltrane's quartet are among the very few sublime vocal recordings in the jam session aesthetic. I'll drop a few names in this tradition: Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Kay Star, Rosemary Clooney, Fred Astaire, The Divine One - Sarah Vaughan, and Herb Jeffries.
This evening I've rediscovered Johnny Hartman's Songs From The Heart that features Howard McGee, trumpet with the Ralph Sharon Trio - sublime music.
http://rayesti-thoughtmatters.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-proof-is-in-jam-part-5-jukebox.html
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Bloggy-Block? Not Really • Dennerlein & Gulda
This morning I'm listening to the music of the Hammond B-3 virtuoso, Barbara Dennerlein • See YouTube links below if you must know visually. On her Junkanoo CD she performs with "King" David (aka David Murray) and other fine musicians. It's groove-music all the way down.
I discovered Miss Dennerlein's music through the work of my main piano-man, the late Friedrich Gulda. Mr. Gulda died on January 27, 2000. The Austrian pianist's devotions were Bach, Mozart and Jazz; his Beethoven swings too. Lame connoisseurs of That Music would have us remain in the dark about Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as improvising musicians - they kicked it too. Friedrich Gulda was a member of the very heavyViennese trinity of pianists, the other members having been Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda. Gulda's recordings of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, especially the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Pierre Fournier, swing. Compare Gulda's recording of Mozart's Sonata in F major k. 332 with that of Mitsuko Uchida, a pianist I also admire. The Gulda has pulse and swing; the Uchida not at all.
It took me a long time getting next to Mozart's art. His string quintets, clarinet quintet and concerto, and a few of the piano concertos were about all I could take of the Great Mozart. Papa Haydn was my man. He was the Duke Ellington of his day, a musician's musician - no fluff, not dainty. What I disliked about Mozart were the performances of Mozart's music -- the music ain't on the page. Mozart was a violist himself, but not many recordings of his wonderful string quartets and quintets reveal his swinging viola writing. When one hears the viola part articulated properly we have a Mozart we can feel.
Have a taste of the YouTube Barbara Dennerlein and Friedrich Gulda linked below -- especially the 1st and 2nd items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ8QtEzZuoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmeYEMwrkZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGVXr4Ji49o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hy_dc8UOjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcrvnwckKGI
I discovered Miss Dennerlein's music through the work of my main piano-man, the late Friedrich Gulda. Mr. Gulda died on January 27, 2000. The Austrian pianist's devotions were Bach, Mozart and Jazz; his Beethoven swings too. Lame connoisseurs of That Music would have us remain in the dark about Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as improvising musicians - they kicked it too. Friedrich Gulda was a member of the very heavyViennese trinity of pianists, the other members having been Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda. Gulda's recordings of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, especially the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Pierre Fournier, swing. Compare Gulda's recording of Mozart's Sonata in F major k. 332 with that of Mitsuko Uchida, a pianist I also admire. The Gulda has pulse and swing; the Uchida not at all.
It took me a long time getting next to Mozart's art. His string quintets, clarinet quintet and concerto, and a few of the piano concertos were about all I could take of the Great Mozart. Papa Haydn was my man. He was the Duke Ellington of his day, a musician's musician - no fluff, not dainty. What I disliked about Mozart were the performances of Mozart's music -- the music ain't on the page. Mozart was a violist himself, but not many recordings of his wonderful string quartets and quintets reveal his swinging viola writing. When one hears the viola part articulated properly we have a Mozart we can feel.
Have a taste of the YouTube Barbara Dennerlein and Friedrich Gulda linked below -- especially the 1st and 2nd items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ8QtEzZuoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmeYEMwrkZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGVXr4Ji49o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hy_dc8UOjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcrvnwckKGI
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Hans Keller and Schoenberg via You Tube
Many years ago (circa 1959) a couple of friends and I attended a string quartet recital by the University of Michigan, School of Music's Stanley String Quartet. At that time we didn't know what was in store for us musically. I'm sure that one of us knew something about the string quatet genre, poppa Haydn and his boys, Mozart and Beethoven.
What was most appearent to my boys and me when we sat down in our seats in the small auditorium in the Rackham Building in Detroit was this: there were ashtrays affixed to the backs of the seats. Given this most appealling bit of interior design, we all lit up and smolked our cigarettes throughout the Stanley's recital. Whenever I think about this episode, and the look on the first violinist's face, I shutter. At the time my chamber music vinyl recordings consisted of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Norman Granz's Jam Session and JATP, The Budapest Quartet's Beethoven, No. 15 in A minor, op. 132, The Juillard Quartet's Bartók Nos. 1 & 2, and Schoenberg's Nos. 1 & 2. These wonderful recordings have been reissued as parts of CD box sets.
I spent yesterday afternoon with the musician Hans Keller (1919 - 1985), with, that is, his fabulous BBC broadcasts -- The Keller Instinct, Parts 1 - 4, Chamber Music, Mozart, Parts 1 & 2, Keller on Fortwängler, 'Performing Greatness', Parts 1 & 2, and 'Portrait of Schoenberg, BBC (Radio, 1967).
I came to Hans Keller, to his writing, through my interest in chamber music, through my interest in the quartets and trios of Haydn, the quartets and quintets of Mozart, the trios, quartets, and quartets of Beethoven, and the quartets of Arnold Schoenberg. I purchased and read Keller's great work, The Great Haydn Quartets, 1986. In the composer Benjamin Britten's words,
What was most appearent to my boys and me when we sat down in our seats in the small auditorium in the Rackham Building in Detroit was this: there were ashtrays affixed to the backs of the seats. Given this most appealling bit of interior design, we all lit up and smolked our cigarettes throughout the Stanley's recital. Whenever I think about this episode, and the look on the first violinist's face, I shutter. At the time my chamber music vinyl recordings consisted of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Norman Granz's Jam Session and JATP, The Budapest Quartet's Beethoven, No. 15 in A minor, op. 132, The Juillard Quartet's Bartók Nos. 1 & 2, and Schoenberg's Nos. 1 & 2. These wonderful recordings have been reissued as parts of CD box sets.
I spent yesterday afternoon with the musician Hans Keller (1919 - 1985), with, that is, his fabulous BBC broadcasts -- The Keller Instinct, Parts 1 - 4, Chamber Music, Mozart, Parts 1 & 2, Keller on Fortwängler, 'Performing Greatness', Parts 1 & 2, and 'Portrait of Schoenberg, BBC (Radio, 1967).
I came to Hans Keller, to his writing, through my interest in chamber music, through my interest in the quartets and trios of Haydn, the quartets and quintets of Mozart, the trios, quartets, and quartets of Beethoven, and the quartets of Arnold Schoenberg. I purchased and read Keller's great work, The Great Haydn Quartets, 1986. In the composer Benjamin Britten's words,
Hans Keller knows more about the string quartets, and understands them better, than anybody else, . . . composers and players included.Tune into Hans Keller and You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hans+keller
Friday, October 24, 2014
EDGEFEST [18] 2014 - Very Sound!
The 2014 EDGEFEST in Ann Arbor, Michigan at, and because of, the Kerrytown Concert House -- Deanna Relyea, Director and Dave Lynch, EdgeFest Founder and Director (1997 - 2006) -- was a tremendous artistic success. To my ears it was the best EdgeFestival in recent years. Most, perhaps all!, of my oldest and dearest friends were there -- Bill, Bill, Carole and Jim. This year's EdgeFest had as its theme (or 'hook' in the lingo of PR) the contrabass. There were virtuosi all over the Kerrytown space: I heard Diana Gannett, Mark Dresser, Mark Helias, Brad Jones, Harrison Bankhead, and the ubiquitous William Parker. The percussionists Tom Rainey, George Schuller, and the ubiquitous Hamid Drake were essential to the music, providing melodious rhythmic magic. I hadn't heard of the splendid percussionist Aveeayl Ra who provided everything rhythmic for Harrison Bankhead's quartet.
There were numerous sonic surprises for me. The virtuosic saxophonists Roy Nathanson (as & ss) and Mars Williams (ts & ss). I had not heard of either of these fine musicians before. I regret having missed Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) group with Mars Williams and the always inventive percussionist Tim Daisy.
Harrison Bankhead's quartet with Mars Williams and Ed Wilkerson, reeds and Avreeayl Ra drums gave a musically thrilling performance on Friday (10/17/14). William Parker's "In Order to Survive" played two sets of inspired music on Saturday (10/18/14). His regular group consisting of Hamid Drake (d), Dave Burrell (p), Rob Brown (as), and Lewis Barnes (t) was augmented by Steve Swell (tb) and Kidd Jordan (ts).
The 2014 EdgeFest provided its audience with some of the world's finest creative, improvising musicians and This Music (the late Bill Dixon's term) of the highest order.
There were numerous sonic surprises for me. The virtuosic saxophonists Roy Nathanson (as & ss) and Mars Williams (ts & ss). I had not heard of either of these fine musicians before. I regret having missed Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) group with Mars Williams and the always inventive percussionist Tim Daisy.
Harrison Bankhead's quartet with Mars Williams and Ed Wilkerson, reeds and Avreeayl Ra drums gave a musically thrilling performance on Friday (10/17/14). William Parker's "In Order to Survive" played two sets of inspired music on Saturday (10/18/14). His regular group consisting of Hamid Drake (d), Dave Burrell (p), Rob Brown (as), and Lewis Barnes (t) was augmented by Steve Swell (tb) and Kidd Jordan (ts).
The 2014 EdgeFest provided its audience with some of the world's finest creative, improvising musicians and This Music (the late Bill Dixon's term) of the highest order.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Friday, September 12, 2014
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