Larry Kart

The Shostakovich recordings of selections from his own Preludes and Fugues and the Op 34 Preludes are also worth tracking down. As to others: Rachmaninov: Definitive recordings of his own concerti, but sadly not enough of his solo works. If they sound very different from most modern performances could it be because modern performers are not getting it quite right? Prokofiev: a good CD's worth of his own music, including the third concerto. Bartok: Definitive performances of the 2nd violin sonata and first Rhapsody with Szigeti (Library of Congress, late 1930's), plus some very fine commercial discs (Suite op 14, Allegro Barbaro, part of the Improvisations Op 20, 6 Romanian Dances, many, many pieces from Mikrokosmos, the first recording of Contrasts with Szigeti and Benny Goodman). For anoraks, there are excerpts from the 2nd concerto in poor sound, but very interesting indeed. A very classy pianist with a more flexible and even "romantic" style than you might imagine: extraordinary playing. I enjoy Stravinsky's recordings of his own piano works, but he is more of a "composer's" pianist, ditto the Duo Concertant with Szigeti... Bear in mind that not all composers are virtuoso performers, and their own performances are perhaps not always what they would have produced if they were better executants, but there is always something to learn. Charles Ives' recordings are fascinating, and the excerpts from the Concord Sonata give you a sense of his improvisatory freedom. Medtner's recordings of his own music(issued by APR) are very fine indeed. Britten and Rostropovich playing Britten's Cello Sonata. Probably lots of others that I can't remember at the moment. Ah, Poulenc, both solo pieces and song accompaniments to Pierre Bernac. Lots of pedal and some faking, but full of character. Piano rolls can be interesting and Appian in Texas have produced some very nice CDs of Skryabin, Debussy and Mahler, ie composers who left no disc recordings (there are many other remasterings of this material, but these are the best I've heard). There are enormous limitations in the medium but they are very useful with regards to tempi, rubato, etc. Debussy's doubling of the tempo on page 2 of La Cathedrale Engloutie is a famous example (the piano roll makes it clear that this is the way he wanted it, and for some reason left out the doppio movimento marking that would have indicated this). Composers CONDUCTING their own music is another big topic! Just remembered, there's a wonderful Marston CD of Grieg and Saint-Saens playing their own short pieces. Really wonderful, although the sound is rather primitive... Don't bother with earlier remasterings, they have unlistenable wow, which has been corrected in this CD from a few years back. I hope this gives you something to get started on! About Rachmaninov playing his own music, I pretty much agree with this from piano maven Dan Koren: "i'm definitely in the minority here, but i'll say this anyway: rachmaninov's interpretations of his own music are perfect examples of how *not* to play rachmaninov. they're calculated, cold and mannered -- and they do not project or suggest in any manner that he lives the music, as opposed to just performing it." Koren adds (and I agree) that Richter is the standard (along with a few others, e.g. , Gilels, Cliburn, Michelangeli) in the Rachmaninov works that Richter and they have recorded.

What if it was recorded in Carnegie Hall, or outdoors in a field,, or an isolated room even smaller than your living room? Sounds quarellous, probably, but not meant to be. Always interested in hearing how different people "hear", what their expectations are, etc.. So no "picking a fight" or anything here, honest. As for your variables, well, sure, but my sense is that one can detect the presence of far-range-of-the-scale factors quite readily and take them into account. I recall some seemingly substantial in every way speakers when you lived on N. Kimball.

Yes -- I've read it. Very good book, fascinating albeit sometimes very difficult man.

:party: Yes, indeed. :party:

Haven't done any comparisons since I got Scott Ross' set a few years ago, but I recall thinking then that it was very good.

My 805s are on some heavy heavy-duty stands (they're filled with sand IIRC) that were built to go with them, and the resulting elevation (about ear high if you're sitting down), plus good placement in the room (including relation to sound-absorbing items like rugs) makes a big difference. About bass response, I'm not a fan of strength per se but think in terms of accuracy/balance -- subjective matters, of course, but when I'm listening I don't like to hear anything in any register that sticks out. My two standard tests, aside from certain fairly imperfect recordings that can sound OK or better if things are just right, are solo piano and the lightly accompanied human voice because I think I know what a piano or a voice should sound like in a room that's about the size of my listening room. If they sound right to me, then so will, say, the Mahler Third or "Chasin' the Trane."

'Tain't the pointless superlatives, it's the pretentious trot Papsrus so neatly parodied. Now, if you want pointless superlatives AND pretension, together with unerringly misplaced puctuation, read some sleeve notes by Dzondria LaIsaac (perhaps a name assumed by Don Robey, for whose labels (Duke, Peacock, Songbird et al) LaIsaac wrote notes on gospel and R&B albums). Those notes are works of real genius. MG Ah, yes -- I remember her contributions to some Bobby Blue Bland albums.

Actually, when I was a copy editor in my later years at the Chicago Tribune, I did help two talented writers -- one at her request on several major stories (because she was a good friend and wasn't getting any of the help she thought she needed from the editors she was writing for), the other because I normally edited his stuff. The second case was especially satisfying because I was sure I was making little or no headway, even though the writer was very smart -- making no headway, I think, because he was frequently caught up in trying to show off to his bosses and to the readers how cute he was. Then, for some reason, he got it and became one of the best writers on the paper.

Some excerpts from the work of Andrew Keh of the Times (see above). "The momentous aura persisted as the fans hung on every pitch. But the joyous element was excised rather quickly as the Cardinals took advantage of Edwin Jackson’s early shakiness. " "Amid the protracted commotion at Yankee Stadium late Saturday night, two of the Detroit Tigers’ hits were particularly rued inside the home clubhouse for how avoidable they seemed." "The atmosphere inside Nationals Park on Thursday never seemed like it would match the relentless vivacity of the previous day, when this city hosted its first postseason baseball game since 1933. The crowd of 44,392 stood constantly and cheered in full voice, but also seemed muted at times by anxiety, particularly as the game wore on and the specter of elimination grew.... Werth provided the difference, blowing open a taut, nerve-racking contest well after the reddish haze of dusk had come and gone from the sky. He came to the plate to open the bottom of the ninth inning with the teams tied, 1-1, to face Lance Lynn, a hard-throwing right-hander. He took two strikes, looked at two balls and then proceeded to foul off six straight pitches. On and on he battled, and louder and louder the fans grew. “I didn’t hear a thing,” Werth said. “It was pretty quiet to me.” "Wrapped in his inner silence, Werth saw a 96-mile-an-hour fastball, the 13th pitch of the at-bat, sail over the middle of the plate and smashed it. There was no doubt about where the ball was landing, and the crowd roared. As the stadium pulsated, Werth circled the bases with fury, throwing his helmet high into the air as he charged down the third-base line. As he approached home plate, he leapt up and stomped down with both feet before his teammates engulfed him." "The sparkling play felt contagious." "Both starters could muster only abbreviated outings." "For another autumn and winter, stable amid the rubble of another collapsed Mets season will stand Terry Collins, the team’s fiery manager.... At least in recent memory, no leader of a troubled sports team in New York has enjoyed the apparent sympathy and overall perception of job security that Collins has during his tenure in Queens. And as the Mets’ 2012 season hobbled to its conclusion last week, votes of confidence again rang out.... Emotional investment has become Collins’s defining trait, and its outward expression has hurt him at times, most noticeably when he has insinuated that his players have stopped trying. "Other players compared Collins’s sporadic shows of exasperation to those that arise in a tight-knit family living in close quarters. In those circumstances, friction can seem inevitable, and emotions can be difficult to check." "Throughout sports, managers and head coaches who are disciplinarians are met with the same enthusiasm as those who are more relaxed types — as long as the wins are there." "But coaches, players and officials on the Mets know that baseball is a results-oriented business. They have all said as much, And it is clear some kind of reckoning is slowly approaching." In much of Keh's work there is a nagging air of approximation and near-tone deaf restatement -- e.g. "...stable amid the rubble of another collapsed Mets season," "...compared Collins’s sporadic shows of exasperation to those that arise in a tight-knit family living in close quarters" -- in addition to the frequent dumb metaphors and Dick-and-Jane rhythms ("On and on he battled, and louder and louder the fans grew"). What, I wonder, if one were his copy editor? Could he be helped? Would he accept help?

My previous current bete noire in this department has been Andrew Keh of the NY Times, who writes on baseball for the most part. A collection of choice bits of Keh would be something else. Again -- and I suspect this is true because Keh is fairly young (a recent Columbia U. grad, I believe) -- I don't think this is solely or even primarily a case of people who probably couldn't write straight if they tried and get all hung up when they try to write fancy. Rather, it's that these people are being taught and encouraged to to write this way, perhaps because the belief is that "We need to show the readers that we're really working." The Times' excellent golf writer Karen Crouse is a blessed exception.

That such goofy, incoherent writing is permitted in a newspaper is one thing -- and I do understand that Brian Hamilton was filing on deadline -- but that it is encouraged (as I suspect it is) and that both Hamilton and his editors are very pleased with what he has wrought here is just plain nuts: By Brian Hamilton, Chicago Tribune reporter 8:02 a.m. CST, November 4, 2012 SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Everett Golson dove underneath the pile, and the pile swallowed him whole. Even as noise then rolled through the place like an unending thunderclap, even as spine-starching evening air crackled with a cocktail of disbelief and glee, even as the pile lurched back and forth, the Notre Dame quarterback stayed disappeared." Etc. Link to the whole shebang: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-1104-notre-dame-pittsburgh-football--20121104,0,1739282.story Another highlight: "It was an exasperating day of the ordinary turned extraordinary and back, of title hopes for BCS No. 3 Notre Dame reduced from a 100-foot bonfire to smoldering ash and then sparked again."

I've got two 805s. Love 'em.

No, but they are bringing their urban know-how, plus a good deal of attitude.

I'm told that the displaced rats hitch rides to the Dallas-Ft.Worth area.

Salman Rushdie's "Joseph Anton"

I don't like much of Henze and am even repelled/baffled by the IMO note-to-note near arbitrariness (as in, "Why these pitches"?) of some of the later works (e.g. the "Six Arabian Songs" that Ian Bostridge recorded for EMI), but I was quite taken with this middle-period work: HENZE. Chamber Music 1958 (rev. 1963). Neil * Jenkins (ten); Timothy Walker (gtr); Berlin Scharoun Ensemble / Brynmoor Llewellyn Jones. Koch Schwann

I mean what do you think the "authorities" should or should not do in this situation? Go balls-out libertarian, every man for himself, and let's pick up the pieces afterwards? Now if you're talking about jumbo soft drinks...

Couldn't agree more, Chris -- stupid and dumb.

Really sad there seemed to be no recognition of this. It was 44 years ago. I recognized its source and pertinence, just didn't feel I needed to acknowledge this -- Dave Flexingbergstein (of Jism magazine)

Really stupid article, for many of the reasons mentioned by many above -- and this comes from a guy (i.e. me) who wrote a piece titled "The Death of Jazz?" back in 1986 or so (my premise was different I think/hope than Mr. Schwarz's). In particular, the equation of the life of jazz and the existence or non-existence of new GAS or GAS-like material flies on the face of, among other things, what jazz musicians have actually done with that material since there was anything called jazz. Does anyone believe that, say, Bird's "Embraceable You" is great because he's playing a solo that takes off on (in some respects) "Embraceable You." Hell, I imagine that a whole lot of people have listened to that solo and been legitimately thrilled/moved by it without being all that aware, if at all, of what changes/melody lie in the background there. Nor do I think that almost anyone who has a deep fondness for Gershwin's admirable original song hears Bird's "EY" and goes, "How lovely a variation on 'EY' that is; I like it for just that reason." And examples of that sort in jazz are almost f---ing endless, so much so as to be more or less the norm. I mean, "Bugle Call Rag" is cool, but alongside Duke's "The Sergeant Was Shy" (even though the latter does allude ironically/comically to the former)?

Chris -- I see the smiley, but the above is just silly (if JSngry posted it, you'd probably be all over him). As BeBop said above, there is no double standard at work here because drug use in music does not reliably and measurably enhance performance. Further, of course, music is not an athletic competition -- specifically, as strict/measured a competition as a bicycle or a swimming race or a track and field event. OTOH, I do believe that Bird traveled 100 meters in less than a second ... in his mind.

What kh1958 and Chuck said. The small group tracks, along with some of "Bird Boston 1952" with Twardzik, Mingus, and Haynes on Uptown (e.g. "Groovin' High"), probably are the best Bird I know. In Boston he's sublime and relatively relaxed, in D.C. he's incredibly fierce/on fire.

Avant-garde Azerbaijanis

Happy (belated) Birthday, Chris. :party: And I like Deena DeRose, Jim, especially the way she sings "I Thought About You."

Don't know about Esperanza's education efforts, but if Wynton's teaching is along the lines of his numerous pronouncements/strictures over the years about how jazz has to be played and how it should not be played, more's the pity. BTW, Wynton has been out there encouraging and inspiring the youth for some time now, no? How many notable youngish players can one name who owe a significant debt to his example/tutelage? I may be blanking on this, but I can't think of a single one outside of the guys who have played in his small groups or the LCJO. And I don't think of any of them as particularly notable figures artistically, certainly not compared to other players of their general age group who came up elsewhere and otherwise. You could add James Carter and Rodney Whitaker to the list, but, really, the education activities are not about a list of other pros who have come up under his wing. It's about the thousands upon thousands of kids he's reached through clinics and encouraged in many other ways (paying for instruments, sending music, etc) the Essentially Ellington initiative, the JaLC school curriculums that get jazz into classrooms in ways that non-music teachers can use and more. I've seen all of this at work in Detroit and environs, including seeing him take time in the poorest neighborhoods you can imagine for elementary school kids. I've also seen him bend the ear of administrators, politicians and philanthropists stumping for music education in ways that do in fact make a difference on the front lines, or at least they have here. I'm not entering the debate here on aesthetic issues, the future of jazz questions or the is-WM-good-for-jazz argument or anything else. Leaving all of that aside, on the education front, my own view is that there is no argument to be had. If more powerful artists across the spectrum -- I'm talking classical, jazz, theater, visual artists, writers, etc. -- put their money and time into these kind of endeavors that way he has, we'd be better off. Mark Stryker speaks the truth, y'all!! you guys better listen up and get educated to what Wynton has been doing and continues to do! thanks, Mark, for being far more specific than i could be. OK -- point made.