Jazz for aficionados

O-10, "The Offering" will not be available until the end of Nov; 9/24, I believe, his 88th birthday. I may accept that nomination; maybe :-). It will be available on vinyl.

Today's surprise:

****Today's Surprise!!
World Saxophone Quartet -- DANCES AND BALLARDS****

First Stravinsky, now WSQ. See what happens when you hang out with the wrong crowd? :-)

Seriously, not the most avante-garde "avante-garde" music by a long shot, but pretty adventurous stuff. That particular clip starts out pretty "inside" and then takes off. I am very partial to the sound of a saxophone quartet. It can be a thing of beauty particularly playing Bach where it can sound remarkably like an organ.

I don't know if I can stand all this agreement:

Kleiber. Clearly a subjective matter to a great extent, but without a doubt one of the very best. Perhaps the best. His Beethoven 5th is unparalleled.

Corea. Beautiful record from a player with a very distinctive sound and sense of swing.

"Ceora". One of my favorite tunes and one with sentimental value. One of the very first I learned after starting to play the saxophone as a kid; after first starting to play classical clarinet. So, in reality, while I never left jazz nor classical, a more accurate description is that I went back to classical.

Previn. What can one add to what has already been said about him? Amazing musician and true giant; up there with the likes of Leonard Bernstein as an example of great versatility at an extremely high level. I agree with all that has been said about his playing; I particularly like the "less bombastic Oscar" comment. There have been a few, somewhat lower profile musicians who have "left jazz" to focus on classical. Two that come to mind are: Larry Combs, recently retired principal clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony who is (was) also a fine jazz saxophonist and former member of Chuck Mangione's jazz quintet; and Ron Reuben, recently retired bass clarinetist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

For the geeks:

The opening clarinet solo in "Rhapsody" is, without a doubt, one of the classic "tests" of any serious clarinet player's mettle; right up there with a jazz player's ability to play over the changes to Trane's "Giant Steps". To be able to play the famous "s(h)mear" with great style and still sound controlled and not like one is about to "fall off the tracks" is incredibly difficult. Here is my favorite performance of that solo by the aforementioned Larry Combs in possibly the best recorded version of this great piece (in its original "jazz-band" version). Is it a coincidence that it's a great version of the solo and that Combs is also a jazz player?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KPL19IgsEHc&list=PLIoTSU58PJgr7GVXju5V-hr9RgHWX9Uve

O-10:

Great clip of Valaida singing and playing with the dancers. Those guys had some great moves. Does wearing baggy pants help with the overall effect?

Reminds of me those Latin guys dancing in baggy suits. Gotta love it.

The Mills brothers are played every week down here on the local PBS station. Great singers. They were just cutting the fool on this clip. Did you notice the shoes the 'country gals' were wearing?

I had always assumed Pops was joking, with his comments on sister Vallaida. After hearing her sing and play, maybe not. Could Pops have been worried?.... Naw! What am I thinking. :)

Cheers

Gershwin: Wonderful piece. I have a couple CDs of Previn and the LSO, playing the same pieces.

'Rhapsody in Blue', just screams "Broadway"! It is what we think of when we think of NYC.

Sadly, we can't buy CDs by orchestras the likes of Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. 99% of all my classical is by European Orchestra. :(

Another TEST, is for flute players, playing 'William Tell'.

Cheers

I see all of you just totally ignored my clip of 'BRAZIL'. And yet, you have the nerve to call yourselves "Aficionados"!
Lawd, Lawd.

Cheers

Frogman, that clarinet solo is so beautiful, but short, that I repeated it several times in order to fully appreciate it.

In Regard to "Offering", without a doubt it wouldn't be to my taste, or Rok's. Normally I wouldn't take the liberty of speaking for Rok, but this is one time I'll take that chance; from the description, and my memory, the only people in the audience, who liked those 35 extra minutes of "My Favorite Things", were musicians. As I recall, neither McCoy Tyner or Elvin Jones were too pleased, I judged that by the expressions on their faces and they way the quit even attempting to follow "Trane" on his flight to who knew where, (that's Trane) and chose to remain on solid ground.

Since you're a musician, you might have a completely different take on "Offering".

Enjoy the music.