Jazz for aficionados

Rok - another thing I thought of on the person playing no instrument - it may be the third bassoon/contrabassoon player, who didn't happen to play on that particular piece, but is on stage because he played something else on that half of the program. His instrument is probably on a stand next to him.

Orpheus - Miles used horn on quite a few of his albums - I believe I have mentioned Birth of the Cool already in this thread. We also discussed horn in jazz quite a while back. I know I have mentioned Julius Watkins and that same album in your first link above. He is the most famous jazz horn player from that era, and probably ever. He was usually what they call a side man, but did record some albums as leader of a group, like that one. Those arrangements, by the way, were all done by Quincy Jones, and the quartet of "back up horns" included two of the most famous classical players in New York at the time, Gunther Schuller and John Barrows. Gunther Schuller is still alive, and still teaching and writing music (he is also a composer). I have met him before, and most hornists own a copy of his famous horn method book.

The third link you posted is Tom Varner, who is currently the leading jazz hornist in the world. There are only a handful of players who make their living doing it, and he is one of them. I haven't ever met him, but we have chatted online on horn websites. Nice guy, and good player.

No idea who the guy in the second link is, and it doesn't say. He is obviously not an improviser, since even though he did write that tune, he is using music (as is the pianist and even that guitar player). That one is not my cup of tea anyway, with the electric guitar and electronic keyboard. Although he is a decent enough player, I was not particularly impressed. Certainly not the level of player (or musician) in the other two links.

Learsfool:

Last Night, the local PBS station aired the New York Philharmonic with Yo-Yo Ma. The program featured music by Osvaldo Golijov, an Argentinian Composer.

The Music was entitled 'Azul'. I thought it was much ado about nothing, but Yo-Yo makes anything sound at least interesting.

After that experiment, they played Tangos by Piazzolla. Ma has made CDs of Tangos before. It was great stuff.

The program ended with Ravel's Bolero. EVERYONE likes Bolero, Except, of course, Ravel!

I noticed that most of the wonem in the Orchestra wore brightly colored dresses. Very nice effect. I contrasted that with DVDs I have recently watched, Vienna, which had NO women, and Berlin, which had their women dressed like the men.

I like the American way much better. I also noticed that it seemed as if more than half of the violin section was female.

How do the top American Orchestras compare with the best Europeans in the world today?? I don't think you can buy CDs by American groups, so I have not heard them recently. Are they still as good as they used to be?

I used to know the names of all the conductors of NY, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Not now.

Cheers

Regular trumpets in use also. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDzGh9-YaXE&feature=player_embedded

and latter that same Horn player…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oa9Jsqoy3o

Love this particular version of Dave Douglas

Comments welcomed. I don't have the words!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XIjGei8zG8

Cheers