Jazz for aficionados

Today's listen:

Benny Goodman -- BENNY GOODMAN LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

2cd Set. Recorded in 1938. The liner notes say this is one of the most important Jazz concerts ever. Sort of like a coming out party for Jazz in the presence of Polite Society and at a big time venue. Not to mention that it seems to have been a totally integrated affair. Not a trivial thing in 1938. Goodman was courageous that way.

A lot of big time players here. The Goodman Band, parts of the Basie and Ellington Bands.

Some of the more notables include:
Goodman, Basie, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Harry James, Gene Krupa and others.

The music is good and played with enthusiasm. The entire effort is let down by the recording. It's uneven. Not much noise, but the volume seems to come and go at random, and sometimes the soloists fade.

A later reissue on CD brings out the music a little better, but more noise along with it. I guess we can say it would be the 'audiophile' edition.

All great tunes. My favorites were 'bei mir bist du schon', 'sing sing sing' and 'honeysuckle rose'. Krupa shines on Sing Sing sing.

It's a shame events like this were let down by the technology of the day.

It was a significant event, and I am glad I have it. Jazz lovers into more modern sounds, and not that much into the history of the music, can probably pass.

Cheers

Rok, the Oscar Peterson at the Concertgebouw album is a good one, if you are not familiar with it already. I would definitely second that recommendation.

Frogman definitely answered your orchestral questions very nicely. I would agree with his speculation about #3 having to do with optional passages, or more likely, actual cuts in the music that were NOT specified by the composer. Another even stronger possibility would be repeats designated by the composer that were not observed, thus messing with the form of the work. Many, in fact most conductors often omit some repeats in Classical era symphonies, for example, which would have horrified the composers of these works - Mozart has some hilarious comments on the subjects in his letters. Frankly, I agree with him. In my opinion, it does mess with the intended form and balance of the composition, and I personally believe all of those repeats should be observed, as they were back in the day. When they are not, for instance in the symphonies of Brahms and others in the Romantic era, the audience is literally not hearing some of the notes he wrote that are played only if the repeat is going to be made, but are not played in the continuation. That's maybe not very clear, but hopefully you get the meaning. I think that this is what the reviewers are most likely referring to, and that it has nothing to do with the technical ability of the players, but with the choice of the conductor not to observe a repeat.

When an artist is popular and makes a good living, he can't be playing jazz, his music must have a qualifier; like "soul Jazz".

Grover Washington was popular, and his music was "jazz" without any qualifier. All jazz musicians in the past have given their versions of popular tunes without getting the title of "soul jazz musician"; whatever, as long as he was able to take it to the bank.

Here are two of my favorite tunes by Grover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80HVojYPdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFd3c2HZvI

Enjoy the music.

Learsfool:

Yes I have the Peterson CD. The 'story' about the Doctor was just me messin' with The Frogman.

I only mentioned the 'all the notes' thingy because I was pretty sure it was Paganini and his '24 Caprices'. Which from what I read, gives you classical folks a bit of trouble. So I thought there was a chance some of the notes were missed, which would be astounding to me!

But it was probably as you said, just a repeat thing or the conductor's shortening of the work.

Cheers

O-10:

I remember back in the day when heart transplants were a lot more iffy and rarer than they are today, a famous doctor listened to 'Inside Moves' by Grover washington jr, while performing a transplant. Blew my mind!

That's what I call a Jazz Lover!!

I have 'Mister Magic' and 'Then and Now'. I also have 'winelight' which I have on the Pop rack. He did a few records with a non-Jazz guy whose name I cannot recall now. I suspect he was a lot of folks entry into the world of Jazz.

Nice clips

Cheers