mikeweil

Better late than never - hope you had a good one! 30 is a great age, 40, 50, too .....

I listened to this during breakfast - such great brass writing is hard to find! Melba Liston clearly belongs among the top ten jazz arrangers, as far as I'm concerned!

Back to Mozart: I compared three recordings of my favourite Mozart piano concerto, # 20 in D minor KV 466 - Lubin / Mozartean Players; Levin / Hogwood, AAM; Immerseel / Anima Eterna. All three are great and play excellent cadenzas, but the Lubin is perhaps the most poetic, and the orchestral colours are the most striking. It's a shame his first two Mozart concerto discs are oop. What kind of piano does Bilson use, and how many strings are there. The above all use Walter fortepiano copies.

Yes - amazon.de has it, release date was February 14. amazon.co.uk has a release date of March 13, 2006. But as of now no trace of it on amazon.com.

1. Bird flu was first reported about a hundred years ago. 2. There have been flu pandemics before, some with devastating losses, but none of them has threatened the existence of mankind. 3. Modern life greatens the effect of these pandemics, mostly through 2 factors: mass animal keepings and modern travelling - both help spreading the virus. I feel less threatened by the appearance of a few dead birds here than by the irresponsibility of people, who (in part motivated by their economic situation) try to smuggle bird meat or eat them or try to keep on with their birdkeeping as they make their living out of it. I read reports about people in Turkey throwing dead geese into the next river instead of burning them - not enough means to control people or inform them, in the first place. This was a cold winter, higher figures of dead birds are normal to a certain extent. There probably were birds killed by bird flu in previous winters, but nobody cared to investigate. I should be concerned, as I suffered from a serious case of bronchial asthma this winter, so my immune system might be weakened a bit. And I have concerts coming up all over Europe, including Turkey. But if you take care, chances are good that you might get away without it. Like all the other diseases originating among animal populations in recent years, this is a signal to reconsider our ways of animal keeping. But just like with BSE, I'm afraid nothing much will happen. So whatever comes, we made it up and deserve it.

While we're at it: Decca has reissued Lubin's recordings of the Beethoven piano concertos with Christopher Hogwood as well as his three solo sonatas in one box set for ca. $ 20.00 on 3 CDs - nothing to complain about - this is a very good recording.

The Mozartean Players are Steven Lubin's ensemble. He's great. I have those two trios, and the quartets, as well as two discs of piano concertos on Arabesque which are among the best Mozart Concerto recordings I have, but seem to be oop. The first has # 12 & 15, the second has # 20 & 23. This here seems to be a new recording - it's a must for me!

I don't think so - when I saw him with Cedar Walton in 2004 it was told he lived in the states but had reduced his touring activities. That double CD looks tempting .....

For Someone I Love - Riverside 9478 / OJCCD-404-2

Yes, that rape story is really saddening. Judging from the photos on the Spotlite LP of Dexter Gordon's Dial sides, which featured her excellent trombone playing, she was a beautiful young woman. Here's a photo (2nd by Francis Wolff): I always enjoyed her arrangements - those Bags sessions are a good example. But she was congenial to Randy Weston, and they both knew that.

That's exactly the problem that made Mozart perform some of his late piano concertos on harpsichord in Vienna: The big harpsichords were considerably louder than the early fortepianos. I have a (OOP) recording of some on a harpsichord played by Siegbert Rampe, and it is much more convincing than one might think. It's a long time since I listened to the Gardiner/Bilson recording: How many strings does Gradiner employ. If the string section is too large, the piano player has trouble to make himself heard. Immerseel solved this problem by using a very clear sounding newly built piano (a Walter copy by Christopher Clarke) and a smaller string section. Considering that even Beethoven premiered his 4th piano concerto with only one player per part in the string section (!) and Czerny complained to him when he had to perform the 5th concerto in Vienna's biggest concert hall this might be the best solution: Use a smaller string section in a smaller concert hall. I remember Bilson playing excellently, however.

Mike Hennessey's book doesn't list that either - this info should be forwarded to him! I guess Chuck's pretty right with his assumption.

Total Eclipse is one of the very few I would buy any day if there was a new remaster available - but RVG? This was recorded by one George Sawtelle at Plaza Sound Studios (this was Riverside's home studio for some time).

I'm convinced it will be! PM on its way!

A nice arpeggio for you!

That's about the only JOS Blue Note I really took some effort to get - I had to order it from True Blue as EMI Germany didn't distribute it for some reason, or only for a few months after its initial release as a Connoisseur CD. I got it mainly for the vocals: I knew the Bill Henderson tracks from a Japanese LP and loved them, still do. I wish Alfred Lion would have done a whole album with him, but it seems he wasn't much into vocals. Yes, it's the only time JOS and PJJ recorded together. Those who expect fireworks may be disappointed - it's the subtle side of both that's displayed here. It's one of my favourite JOS albums, I have to admit .....

No problem! Thanks y'all!

Disc arrived today, and guesses posted. Thanks!

Thanks, Randy, for the ride. As always, a nice mixture of familiar and unfamiliar things. Here are my guesses on first listen without using any other sources than my ears and memory. Track 1: Sounds very familiar, I mean that way of recording a piano trio. Van Gelder recorded that way, but the Stanley Cowell trio on Galaxy sounded similar, too. A very nice track, and I'm curious who they are. I won't risk dropping any names - I find this type of recorded sound anonymizes the personal aspects of a jazz player's sound. But musically, I like it very much. They do not exaggerate, the bass player is very inventive, it is accessible without sounding like randomized playing, they listen to each other - in short, an excellent example of piano trio the way I like it. Track 2: That one I got before the first bar was over! I literally lived with all the albums of that group - they were the idols of my very first band. That piece has a great soaring theme, especially when you heard the free atonal piece that precedes it on the album. A musical climax that makes a great final track on that album, and the sound is great, by the late David Baker, recorded before an invited audience in the studio - the best solution to get optimum sound with live atmosphere. That oboist should be easy to recognize ... (last track) Track 3: Never heard that one before. I like it, on the whole. The drummer bashes a little too much for my taste during the loud passages - I wish these guys would play with the finesse of a Shadow Wilson or Vernel Fournier, or is it the calf skin heads these veterans used that give the drums a wamer sound? That saxist likes his Garbarek et al., but I can't tell who they are. Track 4: Very nice how these two saxes intertwine. Can't tell who they are, though. That piano ... I'm sitting in my office at the computer with is separated only by a bookshelf from the adjacent living room with the hi-fi, and here it sounds almost like a Wurlitzer in some phrases. Nice, but didn't thrill me as much as the first track. Track 5: The intonation of the trombonist is not quite to my taste. Well, these slighty funked-up ditties are not my cup of tea, will have to listen again in a more patient mood ..... Track 6: Those two horns are so well together I had to listen real close to tell them apart. Very good musicianship, they get their message across, not earth shattering, inspired by some Kenny Dorham etc. things from the 1960's, Track 7: Oh, another one I know, or at least had .... let me think .... arrrghh, it's on my tongue but won't come out! It makes me think of Carla Bley's arrangements, but this isn't her at the piano. I like it a lot how all these horns engage in free blowing without getting lost, very group-oriented playing. If I sold this, I may kick myself .... p.s. after picking up my wife after work I suddenly got the idea who it was: Great what big sound he gets from only four horns, I took it for a big band! This composer/pianist had a weird sense of humour, naming this track after an Italian pasta type ..... (disc 1 track2) Track 8: Now that one I had after four notes again! One of my very favourite tracks on soprano from this man! I think this was the only occasion where he overdubbed ..... IIRC the theme was inspired from a texture in his living room rug ..... that saxist should be easy to get, so I won't say any more. (title track) Track 9: Nice free track, I like the way this violinist improvises and that the whole paces themselves very well - when free players are getting too busy it borders on chaos, but here they use space and create the mood together. Who is this? Very nice choices, and it was just as nice to recognize some for a change ....

Ask Alfred - he's the organissimo Hamburg branch .....

Fresh Sound or rather Blue Moon did a nice job of adding most of the Jazzville tracks to the CD reissues of other material of these artists, I have the Jazz Modes, Mat Mathews, and Quinichette sides in that form. You should consider this as it may evoke the appetite for more .... but it looks like the ones listed above are available only on that double. Yes, that music is harmonically up to date for its time, but has a very nice chamber jazz quality at the same time. The "miscellaneous instrument fraction" was very prominent on Dawn: French horn, cello, accordion, flute .....

Considering Herbie's interest in funk goes way back before even the Fat Albert Rotunda album to that rejected Blue Note session (one track was included in the Blue Note Herbie box set and the Lost Sessions CD), and that integrating rock and funk rhythms into jazz was in the air even before Miles jumped on the bandwagon - Tony Williams' Lifetime was much more daring in this respect - I'd say "No". Comparing Miles's use of rock riffs and drum patterns to Lifetime makes him sound rather tame - until the Cellar Door band, that is. I always thought Miles also had a rather conservative side to himself, or preservative - once he had a band that worked, he hated to see them leave: Coltrane, and deJohnette (read in the Cellar Door booklet how Miles and Keith Jarrett pleaded he stay in the band!) are good examples. But, being a Gemini, he had an urge to move on at the same time ...

More belated but heartful wishes! Nice to see there are so many pisces on the board!

Belated birthday greeting from a fellow pisces!

I thought that was Dexter Gordon .....