Peter Friedman

Jim’s most recent post made a point that with which I am in total synch. Listening to one Monk quartet album with Rouse is fine, but if I was to play many albums by that quartet within a short time frame they become rather tedious for the reasons Jim mentioned. I can’t comment on how to rate Ben Riley with Monk without doing some back to back comparisons of the drummers who played in the Monk / Rouse group. But have greatly enjoyed Ben Riley’s playing in piano trios with Kenny Barron and a variety of others. Along with Billy Higgins, Ben Riley was my favorite living jazz drummer for many years. His sensitive fours and solos had that tap dancing quality I have long found gave me great pleasure. Riley did not try to demonstrate his technical prowess through lengthy solos to wow the audience. Rather it was highly musical very tasteful playing that fit perfectly with Kenny Barron and others that I enjoyed.

Joe Cohn - Fuego - Criss Cross

Jan Lundgren Trio Plays the music of Jule Styne - Sittel

We missed the concert. My wife was not feeling well se we left Tucson a day later than planned. However, we did make the concert last night in Taos. It was held in a perfect small concert hall in the Harwood Museum. It holds 100 people and was,sold out. The music was terrific. Charles McPherson was on fire, and at 79 years old played like a young man of 40. This was the first time I heard pianist Jeb Patton live and he was most impressive. He is one of the best jazz pianists around these days in my view. David Wong on bass was excellent, and my wife was espcially impressed by the sound he got from his instrument. The sound in that small concert hall was ideal for a quartet. Chuck McPherson who is Charles son was good and that rare left handed drummer. They played one long set that was close to an hour and forty five minutes long. I had the opportunity to have a nice discussion with Charles before the concert began. My Detroit roots gave us much to talk about. I heard Charles in Detroit before he left for New York well over 50 years ago. All told a special musical evening.

Will be traveling for quite a few weeks and have not discovered how to add images from my iPad. Houston Person - The Party - Muse

Haydn - Op.64/6 Saint-Saens - Cello Concerto Op.33

Mozart - Piano Quintet K.452 Monn - Cello Concerto in G Minor

Haydn - Op.50/2 Gernsheim - Piano Quartet No.3, Op.47

Schubert - Impromptus D.899 and Mozart - Piano Sonata K.332 - Schnabel Bruch - Symphony No.2, Op.36 - Masur

The title tune from this excellent CD. Buster Williams does a particularly fine job here along with the marvelous piano of Steve Kuhn.

Haydn - Piano Sonata No.50 - Brendel Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto No.5, Op.103

i purchased this set some time back and was also disappointed in the split over two discs. Perhaps if I had known that in advance I would not have bought it. The performance is certainly very good, but I have other very fine performances of the Schubert String Quintet.