Peter Friedman

Op.130

Bach - English Suite No.2 Brahms - String Quartet No.3

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.10, Op.96 Schumann - Piano Trio N0.1

Bach - English Suite No.1 Sibelius - Piano Quintet

Op.127 and Op.131

Disc 7 Op.20/3, Op.20/4, Op.20/5

The issue of "growing as an artist", is one that can be viewed in more than one way. Some may view it as moving away from playing standards and well accepted jazz tunes to playing more originals and moving into more "outside" playing. Another way to look at growth might be to focus on the "depth" in whatever the artist is playing. Depth though can be a highly subjective concept. A large percentage of my favorite jazz musicians stayed with the song form and played standards and jazz tunes throughout their careers, and did not play at all in an "outside" manner. I am thinking of musicians such as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn , Cedar Walton, Barry Harris and Art Farmer. They all had reasonably lengthy careers, and Barry is still with us. Their "styles" did not appreciably change over time, and I suppose there are differing opinions as to whether their playing improved / had more depth as they matured. For example, I have read here that some believe Zoot was at his best in the early part of his career, while others have the opposite view. So to bring this back to Steve Grossman, in my biased opinion, he grew as an artist based on his playing on the "best" Dreyfus and Red recordings.

Miechyslaw Karlowicz - Violin Concerto Op.8 Konstanty Kulka (vln), Warsaw National Philharmonic Orch. / Witold Rowicki Could not locate an image of this CD Szymanowski - Symphony No.2, Op.19

Schubert - String Quintet

Haydn - String Quartets - Op.20/1 and Op.20/2 Schubert - Auf dem Strom D.943 & Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D.965

Brahms - String Quintet No.2, Op.111 Franck - Violin Sonata

Haydn - String Quartet Op.17/6 Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto No.4

There are certainly many who have a different opinion, but I am not in agreement with Mark's piece. When Grossman was in his heavy Coltrane mode, he struck me as rather faceless and, to my taste, uninteresting. After resurfacing with an emphasis on bop and a definite Sonny Rollins influence, I found his playing hard swinging and strongly engaging. His many sessions on the Dreyfus label with some of my favorites such as Barry Harris and Cedar Walton (and a some others) featured the best playing I had heard from Grossman.He became one of my favorite living tenor players. Of course all this reflects my (conservative?) love for bop / hard bop jazz. I am hoping that Steve continues to produce more in this vein.

Yes, I have a copy and it's a good one. A much better image.

Brahms - String Quartet No.2, Op51/2 Burgmuller - Symphony No.1

Robert Schumann - Phantasie Op.131 and Violin Concerto (after Cello Concerto) Op.129

Mozart - Piano Sonatas K.310 and K.311 Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata D.821