MomsMobley

B. I have to disagree. Fischer simply doesn't have the chops to play most of that music well. His garbled fugues sounded 'best' in Seth Winner's transfer for Pearl but it's still a false grail of historical J.S. Bach playing. Hewitt is OK for po' faced 'objective' piano but Mike Weil knows the score. If you must have piano, SAMUEL FEINBERG is the man, along with Gould and Gulda. Richter is a disappointment to me; if we didn't know who it was most wouldn't listen again. Afanassiev was a terrible disappointment too esp. since he was peak of weirdo powers then. Listen: Ralph Kirkpatrick, Blandine Verlet, Davitt Moroney, Masaaki Suzuki, Pierre Hantai, Robert Hill.

Paul-- Get any/everything you can by the Cafe Zimmermann on Alpha, who are working their way through the orchestral works better than anyone has before. Il Giardino Armonico is like a finger up the ____ while you're getting _____ -- if you like that sorta thing, you'll LOVE it. Get the Ralph Kirkpatrick keyboard box before it disappears, good price on Amazon now I believe, complement it w/ his WTC. Manze is very overrated. Bysma I, Fournier and Queyras are all excellent; also a lesser known French woman, Ophelie Gaillard, on Ambroise. Casals is good to know. Flee from Rostropovich, Ma, Isserlis etc. Violin: Milstein, Milstein, Gidon Kremer, John Holloway, the period lady on Naxos I'm forgetting... Beward boring Limeys and Benelux musicians w/o sufficient chops. Organ: Michael Chapuis but you can't find; Ton Koopman is best otherwise; Helmut Walcha in mono is very interesting but so particular you gotta complement. Cantatas: Koopman is best set, I like Suzuki too though some find him a little too smooth. Parts of Harnoncourt/Leonhardt are great, others less so. St Matthew: Harnoncourt I, Herreweghe I, Hermann Max, you can pretend to like Mengleberg or Klemperer but I'm not going to, however important. St John: Hermann Max Mass in Bm: Harnoncourt, Bruggen, very little known but ASTOUNDING Anders Eby con. on Swedish audiophile label Propprius. ** ANYTHING ** conducted by Rene Jacobs Art of Fugue: Concerto Italiano, Grigory Sokolov (piano) all the Gould Bach is essential don't believe otherwise Second Hans on harpsichord-- or clavichord!-- tho' I can't countenance Leonhardt anymore, and I've tried many times through all his eras. Other hot stuff to look out for is ** anything ** by Davitt Moroney. Rousset is terrific and if you ever get the Handel bug, all his conducting there is superlative; I don't think he's done Bach. Minkowski has, so far, been oddly underwhelming in Bach... That reminds me, there was one-voice-to-a-part St Matthew on Linn... Dundein Ensemble? that was best I ever heard in that style.

aloc beat me to the sales #s joke. Moran is a well-marketed fraud, &/or mediocrity, even in a niche market. granted it took a while but if he's the fucking future of the music someone ought to put it down now and we can all move on. but he's the 'right' mixed-race and had EMI promotion long enough to be the (fake) avant- Wynton (Marsalis, alas, not Kelly). am fucking baffled people enjoy Jarrett/Haden even as nostalgia but if it helps Eicher put out dozens of vastly superior records a year... so be it.

Medjuck-- that's actually not my fave Rick Nelson does Dylan but it's all I could find on youtube then. The other three Dylan tunes he does on the '69 Troubadour gig are "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," "She Belongs To Me" and, my fave among them, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You." I say this too as someone who absolutely would have said NO MORE DYLAN COVERS!!! before hearing them. I've had many issues with Greil over the years but I'll give him credit for sometimes changing, backtracking, re: Kingston Trio, whose great accomplishment he now recognizes. Still no excuse for writing all the Sly nonsense without George Clinton, or the Robert Johnson mythmaking or the ersatz American Studies (he's gotten a bit better there too, via Frederick Douglass and Allen Lowe) etc... but, the capacity for change is something. Any Rick(y) was a superb musician who continued to evolve/grow throughout his unlikely career. A shame we lost him in the 1980s tho' I ** do ** shudder what horrible duets he might have made. *** Right Rev. Sngry: schtick? You're spritzing me yiddish now? Who the are you trying to be, Jack Ruby with bbq in your ears? Gotta say I didn't like this that much. Greil Marcus claims that the great cover is a one minute version by Elvis on the '70s box set (one of many Elvis recordings I don't have). Marcus may be a Dylan fanatic but he's very disparaging of the later sing along versions by Dylan or The Band and especially the one on The Last Waltz.

Q: How much bbq do you have to eat to spew so much bullshit all day every day? Sounds like the whole goddamn steer-- the whole goddamn HERD. While your correct there's EXCELLENT material on both Capitol and Reprise-- Name me a better duet singer than Dean Martin... ** EVER **. Rarely on record, this is true, but OFTEN on his tv show. From Louis Armstrong on up (chronologically) (Mills Brothers, Step Brothers, Lorne Greene... THEN go watch "Rio Bravo."

Coming from a Sharon Jones fan... Now find me a better Dylan cover, esp. at this time when the sub-genre was dying-- I Shall Be Sngry Doesn't hurt to have one of the handful of greatest ever lap steel players in the band, true-- just like it didn't hurt having James Burton but you can say the same about fucking Miles. And once in a while he wrote an original-- Easy To Be Sngry And, lastly, compare Joe South (a fine writer) to Elvis, or ** ANY ** goddamn imagined black R&B version? NOBODY could cut him, and few would come close; undead Otis, maybe? O.V. Wright? (Whom nobody has ever said was a great live performer.) Walk A Mile In Sngry's Shoes And, speaking of Andy Williams I do NOT, by the way, think Elvis version of "Gentle On My Mind" (Waylon's might be) is best but it sure as shit blows --> away Aretha Sngry Which is sorta cute, sure, but also a mere stunt, neither true reinvention or interpretation. Still waiting for you to find me better versions of "Promised Land" and "Long Black Limousine"-- You fall in a gopher hole or sumpin there, Rev.? Dude - you didn't even recognize the greatness of Andy Williams. I'm supposed to take you seriously?

Big Boat Steve-- later (but pre-physical infirmity) Elvis is a superior all-around musician than early. I could play you at least three dozen tracks '68-'74 equal or superior to ANY music of the period, and equal to or superior to anything E. ever did. From The Hills of Georgia... The GREAT Ricky Nelson-- to name another (underrated) giant influenced by Elvis-- DESTROYS every 5th-4th-4rd-2nd-1st rate "break beat" bullshit touted as transgressive revelation by the Right Rev. Sngry Who VERY ** clearly ** has NO interest-- no ability?!-- to LISTEN. I thought, at least, he was a much better section player than that. BTW, re: Guralnick, he's good for little but chronology and a little basic context; it's nice he worked to clear that up but he's WAAAAAAY too po' faced everywhere else. Moms Is At The Lincoln Park Inn

Q: Is Sngry a farce, a fraud or a deadpan self-parody of angry white boy cracker-barrel sophist cum 'philosophizer'? It goes, by the way, for male pop ballads: Nat Cole >>>> Elvis >>>> Frankie Laine >>>> Dick Haymes >>>> Sinatra >>>> Harry Belafonte >>>> Dean Martin >>>> Pha Terrell ... And eventually Johnny Mathis. Who's not terrible-- a long way better than goddamn Tony Bennett, that's for sure-- but it's pretty hard to care. NOTE: Elvis, Frankie Laine, Harry Belafonte and Dean were all GREAT at numerous other styles besides the ballad. (I excluded Charles Brown and Percy Mayfield both though I wouldn't argue their inclusion: I count them as blues more so than pop, howev.) Johnny Mathis "Gotta Serve Somebody"

Also, "Holiday Gift," etc: ** musically **, it's easy to argue Dylan's greatest period was his Christian phase of late '70s to early '80s. (This was much more evident live than in the studio.) That music is-- obviously-- TOTALLY-- born (again) of Elvis TCB & Sweet Inspirations etc. "Funny" guys who'll jerk off every repetitive Willie Mitchell groove (many of which are fine, of course)-- or Sharon Jones (?!?!)-- can seriously complain about Elvis the musician. "Funny" guys who'll jerk off Beatles, Stones lousy covers etc and deny Elvis the best-- or second best, if you prefer Chuck (defensible)-- "Promised Land." I say it meant MORE to Elvis than Chuck-- which is what a great interpretive singer is supposed to find. Etc etc.

Both of you are fucking ridiculous: projecting inane white boy guilt on somebody who VASTLY your musical superior-- rhythmically for starters. Big Sage Sangry, here's a little project you should have done about 30 years ago but better late than never. Listen to as many versions of "Long Black Limousine" as you can find-- a dozen are easy to get to, including O.C. Smith if, like the Boormann 6 Girl, you got to have soul. Then, when you're done with that, expound to us the multiplicities of, uh, Big Boy Crudup's 'genius.' And then-- if your sacroliliac can still stand it-- tell me what Sinatra, whom you correctly listen to closely-- is greater than Elvis' "20 Days and 20 Nights"? The ANSWER is Fucking. None. I can go on across all genres-- country, rockabilly, soul, gospel, pop-- and NOBODY was ** better ** than Elvis at his best in those genres. I don't give a shit about the fetish item box sets etc but musically ya'll are FOOLS. "Confusion" is the least of your problems. +1 Ok, let me say it again - the bands on Elvis's Sun & early RCA records sucked. They had no groove. Period. Find a pocket, a mutual agreement as to where the beat is. I dare you. And Elvis himself...no faults with his voice per se, but...all of his "influences" did what they did far better than he did. The Sun Sessions are some of the most overrated "landmark" recordings of the 20th century. Aimless meandering by the band, narcissistic directionless ramblings by the singer. "Different"? sure. But "musically significant" (as opposed to sociologically important)? I bought the 197? RCA issue of them desperately hoping to find some Deep Secret Meaning Of Elvis that had evaded me since...1962 or so and...nope. Not there. Not even slightly. To me, a lot of it is confusingly bad. Not unlike listening to Ringo singing "Matchbox" (and I'm a Beatles fan, but I absolutely can not listen to that track). The much-lauded Scotty Moore (a legend himself, to many guitar players) has never shown me anything. At all. I just don't get the hype there. For me, it all went from bad to (much) worse as time went by. The last time I saw the '68 Comeback Special (which was probably 15-20 years ago), all I could do was tilt my head like a dog. Shallow, weak, phony, pathetic... to me it's truly embarrassing. As a platform for a sex symbol, well, obviously. As a platform for a "musical icon"... ??? Give me a break. Not that I care anymmore.

Oh, I'm surprised Chuck! Although I was cool to Corigliano at first too, having first heard his symphony. The movie is probably not our bag but for sheer orchestral mastery, "The Altered States" soundtrack (or excerpts) are unpimpeachable. The clarinet concerto is, I think, superb. The recent-ish Naxos issue of the string quartet also-- http://www.amazon.com/John-Corigliano-Snapshot-November-Friedman/dp/B000OQDRVO The Dylan song cycle ** is ** very likely irritating to many but I think it's daft/brilliant. If you do modern (post-Berg) vocal/choral the Dylan Thomas settings are great. The oboe concerto is a sleep in his work-- I'd recommend it and other of Corigliano to people who appreciate the full breadth of, say, Ernest Bloch-- not just the 'jewish' works & concerto grossi. Different idioms, mostly, of course, but both are not so easily categorized as might first seem. Don't bother with Corigliano opera until you're a fan, or "Red Violin," which is a ringer. For Stravinsky, Revueltas & Bartok lovers only-- Circus Maximus

John Corigliano is still a highly relevant artist and cultural figure... You-- ... Well, Christiern, why don't you tell us about Jourdan Anderson? He might even have been related to Ivie-- Although readers of Whitney Balliett wouldn't even think to wonder it... Would they?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Got his cultural education from fucking Whitney Balliett. So come on Hoots, tell us your favorite passages-- pure style-- of DuBois. Or, if his poetry doesn't appeal, tell is why its inferior to the f-i-n-e stylings of Balliett? "Jazz" deserves its intellectual ghetto when even 'caring' fans pimp fluff whitey 9 times out of 10 (99 out of 100?) instead of a dozen other less comforting contemporary and preceding voices. Which, of course, not everyone in their own time knew. Could Louis Armstrong have told us about the Slaughterhouse Cases? About their aftermath, to a degree, yes but more? Curl up with Whitney Balliett then and pretend ya'll are learning shit save to cover your eyes with goddamn 'style.'

Also, has the original poster, or most Whitney Balliett partisans read: * Frederick Douglass' 4th of July Oration * W.E.B. Dubois' "Souls of Blacks Folk" * Benjamin Quarles "Allies For Freedom" or "Blacks on John Brown" http://www.amazon.com/Allies-Freedom-Blacks-John-Brown/dp/0306809613 ... * Rex Stewart "Jazz Masters of the '30s" * Arthur Taylor "Notes & Tones" *** With ** every ** fucking opportunity, and $$$, Whitney Balliett was, truly, a poorly educated man. Compare his work in bulk to, say, Edmund Wilson "Patriotic Gore" and see how heard more better. Hobson and Sargent are important too for being there at same time and immediately straining against limits of received form-- And moving on. See Sargent's "Bhagavad Gita," say. Hobson was more pro journalist in many roles than straight up feature writer thus much lesser known but still-- still! *** Tommy Flanagan is NOT 'a poet of the keyboard' no matter how many nincompoops think they're being Balliett-esque in saying so.

Don't forget WINTHROP SARGENT, which Chris' suggestion will get you too... People like Balliett because he makes them feel smarter than they are/he was-- otherwise, save a SMALL amount of useful reportage, he's straight bullshittin'. Enjoy the style if you care to but don't pretend it's more or better than that either. I say, again, WILDER HOBSON ... tho' Robert Fitzgerald is even greater Time Inc. lit.

Get Balliett from the library-- his glib technique doesn't mask his lack of knowledge/insight for long. Balliett is also the role model for the worst high gloss hacks of later generations so... beware. Better to spend your time & energy tracking down the jazz writing of Wilder Hobson-- seriously. Moms Knows Best "Sound of Surprise" catchphrase shows just how relentlessly full of shit Balliett is: we can ALL (well all "we" who are avid ragtime to swing to be-bop etc listeners both small combos & big bands) rattle off DOZENS upon DOZENS upon 100s of 'improvised' solos that are... Damn near the same take to take, performance to performance. Where's the 'surprise,' jackoff? That's not a 'criticism' in the least, ** I ** didn't invent the 'surprise' horseshit or the false elevation of 'improvisation' over composition, arrangement, timbre, etc. FOREWARNED!

Dutoit is mediocre in almost everything; I like Hickox-- he's livelier than most Limey choral conductors, maybe cuz he was Australian-- but check also Eric Ericson cond Netherlands Chamber Choir-- http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Poulenc-Secular-Choral-Music/dp/B00004Z3JI http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Poulenc-Sacred-Choral-Music/dp/B0000241MK Switch to Amazon.fr for reviews. For "Dialogues des Carmelites" the classic Dervaux and the Nagano are both excellent.

NIstico kills and almost everyone kicks ass in a dashiki! FACT: Nistico at his best is the closest white people have ever come to Sonny Rollins, 'flaws' perhaps included, despite their usually disparate settings. It pains me think of but Sal destroys ALL "lotsa" tenor turds: Brecker, Berg, Fucking Joe Lovano (who'd still suck barefoot in a dashiki), etc. WHITE TENOR TOP TEN 1. Marsh 2. Getz 3. Nistico 4. Bud Freeman 5. Eddie Miller 6. Richie Kamuca 7. Zoot 8. Farrell 9. Babe Russin 10. Sam Butera Honorable Mention: Cohn, Tubby Hayes, Plas Johnson, (best of) Jan Garbarek, early Gato, Bob Cooper. Not interested: Evan Parker, Peter Brotzmann etc etc. Ken Vandermark! Hah...

Chuck, as native Iowan-- tho' a good hour plus from Powesheik County-- did you know anyone at that Duke gig?

Complete Horowitz Original Jacket, 84 Euros at Amazon.fr --> http://www.amazon.fr/Horowitz-Original-Jacket-Collection-Coffret/dp/B002P3J3BW Last time I put in cart (- VAT, + shipping) to check it was $110 or so inc. shipping.

Gladys was a crook, flat out, and however much that might have been a defensive posture at one time... I'm VERY "glad" it was someone else humping those nasty hocks and not I. Listen again to Jamil Nasser's interview with Phil Schaap about Oscar Dennard for just one small bit of evidence. Don't think Schaap was leading Jami on, either. First, Jamil is his own man 100% and second, Schaap, if anything, tries to protect-- or at least deflect from-- Gladys, despite the difficulty of doing so.

Nelson might be undervalued (ignored) because of the soundtrack work, as was Korngold, tho' it's different transition there. Otherwise, Stryker is right, gotta listen to things-- and read history-- in their time, not knowing what's to come. Still could falter trying to be, say, the Black Delius but ** anybody ** would because Delius' genius was far from replicable... George Walker's body of work-- mostly available on Albany-- is tremendous (listen to any piece with son Gregory on violin for starters) but he's such a thorny character it seems few want to embrace him. Mark, did you get or see Walker's autobiography? Also, I forget you're in Detroit City-- Hannibal, of Bastrop (?), recorded his symphony with the DSO. Still's vocal works should be better know but so should Virgil Thomson's.

Post corrected. BTW, much of the new one is on google books, so let's see what he says about Dean Martin now-- Friedwald & Martin (Crocetti) Forget that I don't even disagree with most of it. Q: Why does Friedwald change the meaning of "menefreghista" (page 304) to "incapable of giving a damn? It's incaple of giving a fuck, asswipe (sez so explicitly in the Tosches he's riffing on), and this is a BOOK, meaning you can write ** whatever ** you like, i.e. at Wall Street Journal (which used to be a great paper, for news) you have to follow 'standards' but ** NO ** legit editor of adult books is going to censor your language for 'dirty' words. "Funny" too how text search shows 'the dreaded N-word' isn't in the book; how the FUCK can that be? That's not 'taste' or 'sensitivity,' it's a goddamn historical LIE. Note also, while Paul Robeson is mentioned numerous times, there is ** NO ** Paul Robeson entry. What's the matter Will, can't handle complex truths without Tony Bennett telling you it's OK? Paul Robeson Purest Kind of Guy (Marc Blitzstein) Fuck Will Friedwald. And Gorden Jenkins was goddamn brilliant. xxoo, Moms

DING DING DING DING! Freidwald is musically-- get this-- illiterate; an OK, if not infallible, guide to shit he "likes" and a fraud to things he-- for whatever reason, usually ill-explained or merely bitchy-- does not. Meanwhile, despite having Tony Bennett's DNA on his chest, his claims are fucking laughable. esp. given Will's V-A-S-T goddamn ignorance of non-jazz (and a little cabaret) pop singers. And what the fuck was his problem with Mabel Mercer? I admit she didn't TASTE good but who says you gotta eat her? At one time I found parts of the Singing book alright; decent on, say, Peggy Lee; dogshit on, I forget... Jeri Southern? Julie London? Ann Margaret? I don't think he mentions Jim Reeves, which ain't my regular cup of meat but I wouldn't NOT put him against Dick Haymes, say. Friedwald's Wall Street Journal writing is crap too btw tho' I cut him slack there, sorta. Do I recall his Kenton/Mosaic notes as decent? I can't remember what he said about Dean Martin who, while he obviously didn't make-- or try to-- the same quality of albums Frank did ... fucking DESTROYS Frank and most other pop/jazz/etc as a live performer-- which counts for a lot, actually. sleepy time down south gentle on my mind up a lazy river Freidwald also missed a lot of lesser known songbirds in the singing book tho' OK, he was a young guy then spending capital of his old man's (excellent) record collection. Except that he horribly misunderstands Gordon Jenkins, misuses musical terms more than once, seems to be unable to notice and/or comprehend the evolution of the singer's swing (and that of the backgrounds) throughout the 50s & 60s, seems t think that all of the post-comeback material is more or less of a piece, and seems to be convinced that at some point "I" will "need" to hear all of the 40s recordings (hasn't happened yet, not but a long shot. One or two at a time is just fine, thank you.). Other than that, a fine book. Seriously. But ain't no way that I take him at all seriously on the "insight" front. I think he's a literate fan as much (or more) than anything else. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Seeline: I know what you're implying but you use too broad a brush, on both of the border, I think. Sngry: with but few exceptions, FACT: songs & marches win, and I say that as great advocate of composition. As for "sound" (mere sound, some might say), that's PHILOSOPHY, not music, unless we're really going to pretend Bill Dixon, admirable-- even heroic-- polymath & all, was REALLY a "great" "composer." Yeah, what fucking song? (Maybe the RCA album?) I won't even get into Ben & Lester, tho' if we were younger, & swingers, we'd both thrill to get into Claire Austin "four or five times." *** = to best of ALL jazz, best of ALL boleros, EVER ---> George Jones "Open Pit Mine" (written by mysterious D.T. Gentry*) From Morenci, Arizona where the copper mines glow I could see Clifton in the canyon below In Clifton lived Rosie, we danced and we dined On the money I made in the open pit mine. I loved my sweet Rosey and she loved me too There was nothin' for Rosie that I wouldn't do Her hugs and her kisses they were something divine Gave me reason for working the open pit mine. While I was out walkin' with my Rosie one day We passed a store window with rings on display I bought those she wanted, how they really did shine Spent the money I saved from that open pit mine. Her love would bring heartbreak that I would soon learn 'Cause she would two-time me when my back was turned Rosie would go dancin' and drink the red wine While I worked like a slave in that open pit mine. One night I caught Rosie on her rendezvous She was huggin' and kissin' with somebody new It was there that I shot her while their arms were entwined Then I buried her deep in that open pit mine. I took a look at my future and what did I see There was nothin' but trouble a-waiting for me But on the sun's next rising I'll be satisfied 'Cause they'll find me there sleepin' by my sweet Rosie's side. * real person, not publishing co. fiction