Larry Kart

Your tingly spider sense probably should be trusted, but this record, especially the Finegan half, is less over the top clever than other S-F music I know. As Bill Kirchner said, "From a jazz point of view, it’s probably the best of the S-F albums." But then your typical S-F fan probably doesn't have that much of a jazz point of view. OTOH, if you see the album used for a few bucks or less... I'll add that the Duvivier-Lamond bass and drums team keeps things swinging by and large, and that both the orchestral execution and the sound quality (on my mono pressing) are exceptional.

I also thought it would be a rehash, which is why I didn't listen to it after I bought it for 50 cents or so. But a rehash it's not IMO. BTW, I found the Finegan-Miller tracks here more interesting than the Sauter-Goodman ones, perhaps because the former in their original form were more plain than the Goodman-Sauter originals and thus offered c. 1958 Finegan more room for variation-invention than the already rather worked-up vintage Sauter-Goodman pieces left room for c. '58 Sauter.

Another LP from the distant past that I found on my shelves— bought it used a few years ago and may not have ever sat down and listened to it before — “Sauter-Finegan Memories of Goodman and Miller” (RCA, 1958). Based on the personnel lists in the booklet of the one Sauter-Finegan CD I have, “Directions in Music,” an RCA compiliation that includes one track from the Goodman-Miller album (I have several other S-F LPs), the band here is a mix of S-F vets and some NY studio regulars of the time: Doc Severinsen, Al DeRisi, Joe Ferrante, tpts.; Rex Peer, Sonny Russo, Tom Mitchell, trbs.; Jay McAllister, tuba; Walt Levinsky, Phil Woods, Al Block, Al Klink, Wally Kane, Gene Allen, reeds; Lou Stein, piano; Nanette Norton, harp; Mundell Lowe, guitar; George Duvivier, bass;, Don Lamond, drms; Joe Venuto, per. — a formidable batch of executants, and do they play their asses off. And the writing is quite something too — not reproductions of Finegan and Sauter's vintage Miller and Goodman charts but more or less a series of inventive fantasies from S and F on the likes of “Little Brown Jug," “Clarinet a la King,” “Song of the Volga Boatman,” “Benny Rides Again," etc. Levinsky takes the clarinet solos on the Goodman pieces, expert playing but more Shaw-like than Goodman-esque, and there are a number of solos from unidentified others, although Woods is unmistakable and in fine form on “Volga Boatman.” My friend Bill Kirchner says, "From a jazz point of view, it’s probably the best of the S-F albums."

IIRC my problem with it is Scotty Holt. I heard him in a club in Chicago with Jackie at about that time, and in the course of one of Holt's "Hey, look at me, Ma!" solos, Jackie said ""ridiculous shit." I'm aware that this could well have been a term of praise, but I took it as the simple truth.

I remember an excellent session c.1967 with Kalaparusha and fellow tenorman Fred Schwartz at the house that drummer Doug Mitchell I shared in Hyde Park; bass player might have been Clyde Flowers. Also recall, from about the same time, an Ajaramu/Claudine Myers gig at a club on Stony Island where Kalaparusha and Roscoe sat in, and when "Happy Birthday" was requested for the standard reason, they proceeded to play on it quite seriously for a good length of time.

Very fine.

Different in what way? Listened to the beginning of Concerto 5 -- awfully fast. My wife said, "Give them the yellow flag."

Especially the NYC and LA studio guys of the '50s. It's a bit circular, but to some degree that can be chalked up to Myers' taste for those big band sounds, and it was those players who were making those sounds by and large. Backtracking a bit, that Johnny Richards album that Myers extolled, "Something Else," is fairly nutty/surreal even by Richards' standards -- albeit nutty/surreal in an entertaining manner IMO. Its saving grace is that, unlike some other Richards' efforts, it's not particularly pretentious.

Is Claudio Fasoli still active? I like his playing quite a lot.

Many memories

....with that mega-inviting Joe Dailey set!!!!!! Joe Daley

Stefan Wolpe Chamber Piece No. 1

Sounds interesting to me.

Never heard them. There's lots of Brandenburgs that I've never heard. OTOH, what Pinnock I have heard, especially his solo recordings, I didn't like much or at all (e.g. his Partitas).

Been on a Brandenburg kick lately, am open to a fair number of styles. Favorites: Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra (London) Szymon Goldberg, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (Philips) Renaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano -- HIP, very zippy ((Naive) Positive so far but not sure yet: Richard Kapp, Philharmonia Virtuosi (their 1991 recording on ESS.A.Y; they did an earlier one for Sony) Trash: Phiilp Pickett, New London Consort (L' Oiseau-Lyre) -- I endorsed this on another thread some ways back; boy was I wrong Need to listen to more or again: Casals, Marlboro (Columbia) -- Concerto 1 was turgid, but IIRC there are revelations further on Karl Ristenpart, Chamber Orchestra of the Saar (Nonesuch) -- fondly remembered