Jazz for aficionados

Will wonders ever cease? A current day 'Jazz' player that actually plays Jazz. How refreshing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNkBjsL_M5s

Cheers

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Amazing arrangement! I have to chuckle because the only version of that song I've ever heard is the one by The Dixie Cups back in '65.
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Randy Brecker has been on some good records lately. Maybe he can play a little.

O-10, I am a big fan of Mrs. Allyson. Great Call! Try Stacy Kent.

There are a lot of really good current players playing Jazz.

Mitch4t:

I thought 'carry on' was too much Brecker and not enough Lynne. I thought Iko Iko (my post) was a much better showcase of her talents. I notice she plays a lot of the old classic tunes. Good for her.

I have always felt that a lot of the classic stuff can be done better. After all, the hard work has already been done. And maybe modern recording techniques, better instrumentmentation, and fresh insight, can actually improve a lot of the old recordings, if not the creation.

Now, if she would only dress a little less revealing, so we can concentrate of the music!

Thanks for introducing her.

Cheers

Hi Rok - I am in an extremely busy stretch at work right now, so sorry for the slow response. The short answer to your question is that my orchestra has never programmed that piece, nor have I yet had the opportunity to participate in a professional performance of it.

However, I am of course very familiar with the work, and I did play it once in grad school with the student orchestra. I have worked on it again very recently, too - our principal horn was hired as a guest soloist for a much smaller orchestra to play the first part on it, and in his preparation for that, I read it in practice sessions with he and two other local players. In both cases, I was playing the lowest, fourth part, which is what I do normally professionally.

This piece is another great example of how pieces are often revised/edited, as we were talking about a few months ago here. Almost never is it done anymore the way Schumann wrote the solo parts. There are several different versions out there where the solo parts have been re-written (by horn players) so that first horn part is not so murderous to play. Some of the really high parts are given to the second and third horns, so the workload is spread around a little more. In all these different versions, the orchestral parts are unchanged, I am merely referring to the four solo horn parts. In fact, I am not sure I have ever heard a performance with the solo parts exactly as Schumann originally wrote them - that is a very murderous first horn part, indeed. Schumann didn't really understand that when he wrote it - he was not the best orchestrator (the term refers to deciding which instrument actually plays what once the writing of the composition is finished - another term used is scoring). The piece is a real oddity, but it is a good piece, and is always popular when performed. It is very fun to play, and really shows off what a quartet of horns can do.