Larry Kart

Here's a clip of that young female French clarinetist I was thinking of but whose name I couldn't recall. She's Aurelie Tropez. http://www.reedwarmers.com/uk/aurelie-tropez-biography.html

Anat Cohen evidence -- Some very rhythmically inept playing at times IMO:

Lotte Lehmann singing Brahms and Wolf (Victrola). Maybe the greatest female singer ever, I'm thinking.

I have the old LP Holiday on Verve box (put together in Japan IIRC). Just right.

Yes, Morel's music and his soloists are working in an older tradition than Cohen is, but she is "in the tradition" by and large and also sounds to me like she's playing by the numbers and/or under glass, while Morel's reed soloists -- Alain Marquet, Marc Bresdin, and Michael Bescont -- are vividily in the present, emotionally and in terms of creating anew. Or so it seems to me.

Lots of Les Rois Du Fox-Trot on YouTube, including their version of "A Night in Tunisa"! Here's their version of Ellington's "Misty Mornin,'" with an exceptional solo IMO from altoist Marc Bresdin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzGprenHkso

Morton's "Deep Creek Blues" from Jean-Pierre Morel's Les Rois Du Fox-Trot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OInNyuWamKY and from Wynton Marsalis:

I know what you mean in general and agree, but Jean-Pierre Morel's Charquet & Co. (later Sharkey & Co.) and his Le Petit Jazz Band seem to me to be a different sort of phenomenon, just as Dave Dallwitz, Ade Monsborough and the other remarkable Australians were. The initial/sensibility orientation was "trad," but the results were something new. Dallwitz's "Ern Malley Suite," for one, was evidence of that.

If you want to hear some really fiery, creative "in the tradition" clarinet playing, check out Frenchman Alain Marquet with Sharkey & Co. in 1978: Marquet in more recent times was no less excellent with Le Petit Jazz Band. Also, though I can't recall her name right now, there is a youngish female trad clarinetist (American or European, I don't recall which) who could eat Cohen for lunch.

Why? All I hear is lots of licks, no particular sense of line. Also,it seems to me that her time isn't that great at times, though this was more the case on tenor than on clarinet. In any case, what is there about her that you find striking musically? My impression is that if she were not for the human-interest factors of her being a woman and from Israel, Cohen would not have entered the public consciousness to this degree. Further, there's the fact that some of her early prominent NYC gigs came about because her boyfriend, Bill Gates' financial advisor, bankrolled them. Don't know to what if any extent that's still the case, but that certainly served to get the ball rolling.

Pace Dan Morgenstern, one of her big fans, but Cohen's playing gives me a pain.

No -- not Anat Cohen!

Just listened to what has to be one of Herseth's finest hours, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with CSO players conducted very stylishly by James Levine. The disc, "Music from Ravinia, Vol. 1" (RCA), from 1978 -- I have it on LP but I've seen it on CD*** -- also includes an excellent Concerto No. 5 with Levine tearing up the pea-patch on harpsichord and the Wedding Cantata with Kathleen Battle, a performance renowned for the playing of oboist Ray Still. In any case, Herseth is SO fine here, joyous music-making. *** http://www.amazon.com/Music-Ravinia-Brandenburg-Concerto-Cantata/dp/B000003FC3

Can't pick one -- five would be "Nonaah," "L-R-G/The Maze, etc.", "Sound," "Congliptious," and "Old/Quartet." And I can think of many more.

Paray, Detroit S.O., Franck Symphony (Mercury) Francescatti, Mitropoulos, N.Y. Phil., Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Concerti (Columbia) God bless thrift shops.

Would like to know, along "stop him before he kills again" lines, who it was on WKCR who offered that wildly erroneous info about Billy Bauer taking Christian's place with B.G.

Any thoughts on him? Best recordings? I was led to listen to some things on Spotify and was intrigued. An individual voice, I thought. Especially nice "speaking" tone, somewhat akin to Harold Land's at times, I thought. Would have liked to acquire Rosengren's Lars Gullin tribute album "Late Date" but was daunted by the price -- more than $500! BTW, on "Late Date" there's a Gullin piece with a great 1950s title, "Decent Eyes."

What a kick it was to hear "The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron" and "Now Hear This!" when they first came out. B.B. was in effect a "third way," maybe even a "fourth."

Positive response to the Chicago Bears draft from Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune, who has lots of experience and is far from a "homer": http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-spt-0429-pompei-column-bears-20130429,0,3565319.column

What a job! And what a building! Must pay a visit to it.

I remember seeing/hearing him play at Ravinia when I was in my early teens. Very impressive experience.

FWIW, I believe that Miles is on record as a fan of Getz's ballad playing, its melodicism in particular, and we know that Miles is never wrong.

I love Konitz, but if you think he plays in tune consistently.... As Lee himself readily admits, he plays sharp a great deal, especially in recent years, albeit to achieve what he feels are legitimate musical ends.

What I don't like about "Focus" (and I like a good deal of it) are the moments when Getz begins to make his then prevalent "mooing"/"whining" gestures. Such timbral signs of overt emotion make me gag when they come from most any player, but from Stan they really seem pasted on.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/sondheim-and-marsalis-to-collaborate-on-show-for-city-center/ "The conceit of the show is that Mr. Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will arrange and interpret about two dozen of Mr. Sondheim’s romantic songs, all of which have some connection to New York City."