Jazz for aficionados

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.

"Randy's work is what got my attention...", "I'm going to create a channel for HER...".????? I've been a Randy Brecker fan for over 40 years. I've seen him and his brother Michael (RIP) many, many times. His body of work is prodigious and eclectic. Between his work and all the recordings he's been on his discography is enormous. He's got to be one of the most recorded trumpet players of all time! Maybe you should also create a channel for Randy! Just sayin'!;)

Learsfool:

Thanks for a very detailed, informative, and eye-opening reply. I will order a CD of the Schumann Horn piece. For some reason, there does not seem to be that many CDs available.:)

Cheers