MomsMobley

Are you wearing chaps? Have you read "At Swim Two Birds"? A great Irish Western! More pertinently, have you ever seen/heard a first rate performance of a Mozart opera, from "Idomeneo" on? I'd even grant you "Mitridate" in certain recordings. Would you say there were somewhat... "dramatic"? While there are moments of repose in the piano concertos, any performance-- let alone set-- that underplays their great variety of dramatic situations is CRAP. Uchida and Tate are a joke; she was a competent marketing trick when such could still be pulled off; that's she genuine Vienna-phile doesn't change the fact she's unimaginative-- or, if you wanna be generous-- that she imagine's a far more genteel and prissy composer than one I ever wanna hear. Brendel is overrated by the Limeys and unpleasant to look at but before he became Venerated he could be okay-- and Neville Marriner is actually a terrific musician, if not best or most alert or creative in any one way. If there's a generalized goodness possible, he's it. Hogwood's is sorta similar as conductor, with a few higher peaks and valleys; Andrew Manze is mostly garbage-- it was just confusing, at first, to see a Limey paying lip-service to letting loose we thought he actually WOULD. Hardly. In nearly all repertoire the best French, German, Italian players waste him. Some Brits can get wooly but moreso under foreign conductors than their own (who aren't all snoozes mind you but in Mozart and before they usually are.) The Dutch are a goddamn puzzle. Some of the best and some as lame as anyone; same goes for Belgians and all those dreary Leonhardt/Kuijkenites. It was better before they got their chops up in that THE STRUGGLE added character their later facility smoothed out. In any event, I forgot Robert Casadesus-- any performance from whom kills everything possible from an Uchida, Anda, Perahia, Ashkenazy (the last has made some nice recordings as a conductor btw, better by far than most of his later piano work). You forget, apparently, that classical marketing was really quite a thing, once upon a time, and that if you were not among the chosen the few, the attn you'd get-- and retail exposure (when there was such)-- exponentially less than the stars, quickly diminishing to nothing. Also, don't miss DINK JOHNSON!!! It's never too late.

Stefan, coming soon-- or already there in Euroland. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Concertos-Sofronitsky-Collegium-Varsoviense/dp/B004M5BZR6 yah, K.A.W., the Buchbonder orch. isn't the best but at least it's 'characterful.' Staeir, Vegh, Pletnev and Sofronitzki are best for non-generalized accompaniments, Fey too w/ Zitterbart. Would be great if Rene Jacobs or the Akademie Alte Musik Berlin were in the game but so far nada. Ashkenazy is a nullity in Mozart, Barenboim too; Brendul + Marriner probably best of the 'common' major label sets. Marriner won't rock your ass but he will poke at it once in a while-- feels good!

Uchida SHITS on the shelves-- she owes you, man, more than you owe us. You just posted on a bad day-- listen to three Don Ewell records of your choice as penance. And while Perahia has made some decent recordings (Bartok, some Bach), the Mozart is not among them. AVOID AT ANY COST. gentle/genteel Mozart is a sham/shame any way you slice it but if you gotta go softer, Andras Schiff + Sandor Vegh is superlative bc Vegh is such a terrific conductor. Schiff ain't horrible but there's a lot more than he offers. For sets, Vivian Sofronitzki is best-- being reissued cheap even as I speak-- with Malcom Bilson a tried alternative tho' as ever in Mozart, Gardiner cond. can be glib. AVOID Immeerseel, the Perahia of period instruments here. Anda was and remains horrible-- the kind of shit that gave Mozart a bad name in the first place. Brendel isn't terrible but he's never better or more interesting than many others. Get anything Schnabel, Pletnev, Staier, Zitterbart and, if you see it for a decent price, the Rudolph Buchbiner integrale on Profil, which might be best modern instrument set ever.

** ALL ** Mozart on modern grand piano gives you less than half the music. Uchida is horrible. Brendel is dreary. Schiff sucks tho' he's gotten better since then. Zoltan Kocsis or Dezno Ranki are in fact very good-- grab 'em if you see used. Of common stuff Klein is subtly tolerable but Euros will do better with Zacharias on EMI, as well as stray sonatas by Schnabel and Cassadesus; forget Edwin Fischer even if Chuck wills it otherwise. Forget Barenboim, though he's a decent accompanist (Wolf) and conductor (Busoni) sometimes. I will strongly disagree with the esteemed Mike Weil re: Gould, which-- true-- ain't the place to go hear tinkly-tink Wolfgang but is superior execution of counterfactual interpretation. Listen to the dozens of polite turds in K. 310 and Gould is like a great hand job in Finnish sauna-- blessed release! Leon McCawley's integrale on Avie is fine; you might know his superlative Barber disc on Virgin a few years ago but still, he can't triumph over the boring instrument. *** Bilson is #1 choice, still, the sonatas Brautigan is also good but I'd get Bilson + supplement Brautigan in variations; Laura Alvini is also swell in variations. recently, Kristian Bezuidenhout is great so far-- one small label, two Harmonia Mundi, one HM + Mullehjans in vn sonatas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV8RY75t888 Marcia Hadjimarkos from Iowa (that will make Chuck happy) is fantastic but she's onlt recorded one cd. Andreas Staier kills his two discs on HM + was part of Les Adieux in the pn quartets. Siegbert Rampe has a series of all Moz solo keyboard on MDG, even uses clavichord some but with all the juvenalia, it's hard to recommend for regular listening. *** in the PC's Bilson, Sofronitzki and Staier are King, Queen, King. Levin is interesting. Immerseel is a snooze. Perahia, Brendel, Uchida et al are fucking butchers. Casadesus and Schnabel save what's salvageable.

classical Zappa and Ruth Underwood getting some mainstream media attention-- http://hilobrow.com/2011/05/23/ruth-underwood/

"Go ahead bitch, show me what you can't do." -- Charles Mingus to, presumably, Jane Getz from Suze Rotolo's autobiography-- Freewheelin' Mingus

Braxton is much closer to Wagner than an egret.

Roy Harris & George Walker

hmmmm-- wasn't Bylsma I (from RCA/Seon) reissued in the Sony SEON reissue series or am I Confucius? In any case Bylsma I >>>> Bylsma II. Also, for the Bach keyboard: ** any ** Andreas Staier. Also, for Bach (family) vocal: ** any ** cond. by Konrad Junghanel, though he's a little more gentle than you might expect. Also, for Bach listeners who read English, Durr/Jones Cantatas of J.S. Bach Chafe Analyzing Bach Cantatas I will speak on historical-- as opposed to 'historically informed'-- recordings of the Art of Fugue in the next lecture. Anner Bijlsma's Sony recordings are the later ones, they were made in 1992. His first set was released by RCA/Seon in 1979.

Dixon had nice hats

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.