HutchFan

I'm glad to hear that some of you agree with me about that Al Haig LP. IMO, it's a tremendous record, and tremendously overlooked. You might say the same thing about most of Haig's records from the 1970s. They are really, really good -- and no one seems to talk about them. Along with Invitation, I'm especially partial to Piano Interpretation and Interplay (both on Seabreeze), Duke n Bird (Eastwind), and Ornithology (Progressive). I feel the same way about the Larry Willis LP. It's another hidden gem. After the opening cut (which is a little bit generic, but only a little), I feel like the "real" Larry Willis comes out. Unstoppable lyricism. ... And totally at odds with the tough guy image he projects on the album cover. Love that Tito Puente too. It's a HARD DRIVING Latin Jazz classic! Well, I guess I love all of them. Jim - I'll keep an eye out for Love Cry Want. Looks very interesting.

That's good news re: Phil's autobiography. 👍 Larry, I agree with you about that LP. Wonderful stuff.

Weekly Recap - PLAYING FAVORITES: Reflections on Jazz in the 1970s Carlos Garnett – Black Love (Muse, 1974) Ella Fitzgerald – Fine and Mellow (Pablo, 1979) Al Haig Trio – Invitation (Spotlite, 1975) Larry Young – Lawrence of Newark (Perception, 1973) Larry Willis – Inner Crisis (Groove Merchant, 1973) Jack Wilkins – Windows (Mainstream, 1973) Tito Puente – Tito Puente and His Concert Orchestra (Tico, 1973) No write-ups this week. We've now advanced to recordings made in 1974.

One of his many masterpieces, IMO. Jug at his best!!!

Ooooh, I bet that's good. I'll listen to Fassbaender sing anything. Such a powerful artist!

Yep. He could be very demanding, at times -- and even plain mean. My Stoki kick has been prompted by reading his biography. One time, when Stoki was conducting a youth orchestra, a cellist got under his skin. And he "went off" on the young person. Someone finally had to step in and say, "Leopold, this is just a youth orchestra. This kid isn't a professional!" But I don't get the sense -- at least from the biography -- that he was often that way. It was more that his temperament was mercurial.

Continuing my Stokowski kick with ... from this set ... IIRC, Stoki recorded Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade six times. I guess he liked it. 😉

More Nancy Wilson:

Nancy Wilson - But Beautiful (Capitol, 1971) with a quartet led by Hank Jones

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique" - with the LSO

Understandable. Sometimes, Mahler is just too much.

I think Stoki's "Resurrection" is O.K. -- but I prefer recordings by Walter, Bernstein, and Scherchen. What was it about Stokowski's performance that bugged you, Chuck?

O.K. Why?

Disc 8 - Dvořák: Sym. No. 9 "From the New World"; Smetana: The Moldau and "The Bartered Bride" Overture EDIT: Just read this quote about Stokowski by author & composer Eric Salzman: "There used to be an old idea about Music as Magic. Not just the 'weave-a-spell' bit but a really serious notion that a great musician could transform mere sounds into something more than the sum of their parts -- an illusion of tangibility, so to speak, a kind of shared revelation and no questions asked. Now there's only one of those wizards left and his name is Leopold Stokowski..." Disagree with Salzman about Stoki being the last musical wizard. But otherwise... RIGHT ON!!!

I'm not familiar with that one, CJ. I'll check it out! 👍

Prompted by discussion of Schoenberg on another thread: Antal Dorati was a great conductor.

Jim, that's really interesting... thinking of Higgins as a conversationalist. I dig that. Sort of along the same lines, the image that usually comes to me when I'm listening to Billy Higgins is a dancer. His drumming IS flexibility and movement. The patterns are there too, of course -- but as a listener you can't help but get caught up in his dancing -- because that the thing, whatever the steps may be. This coming from a non-musician, of course! Just my way of putting some pieces together.

Agreed. I much prefer Big George to Bob Berg. ... Not that Berg was bad. No way. Not at all. It's just that Coleman (and Clifford Jordan) both sounded a bit more hand-in-glove with that rhythm section, IMO. EDIT: Forgot to say Lucky Thompson too, as heard on Goodbye Yesterday. Another perfect fit for the Walton/Higgins hookup. Very different but equally wonderful.

Brahms' late piano pieces are so wonderful -- as if in old age he can finally let down his guard and reveal something immensely personal. I've never much warmed to Gould's Brahms. But I should pull the LP off the shelf and give it another listen. ... I've never heard the Volodos disc. My current faves in this repertoire are Peter Rösel and Dmitri Alexeev.

Based on Larry's recommendation, I'm now listening to Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 3 by the Fred Sherry Quartet. It's the first time I've listened to this composition. ... The recording is available for streaming on Amazon if you're a Prime member. Prompted by this thread, last night I re-read the chapter on Schoenberg in Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. Such a good book.

It was great to read this thread and hear from others. There's so much musical expertise and musical love on this forum. It's inspiring. I don't know a great deal about Schoenberg. I should probably dig deeper. That said, these are some Schoenberg recordings that I know and enjoy: - Verklärte Nacht (sextet); Trio / Juilliard SQ, Walter Trampler, Yo-Yo Ma (Sony) - Verklärte Nacht (orch.); Pelleas und Melisande / Karajan, BPO (DG) - Gurrelieder / Sinopoli, Staatskapelle Dresden, et al (Teldec) and/or Craft, Philharmonia O, et al (Koch/Naxos) - Piano Works / Pollini (DG) - Piano Concerto w/ Brendel; Violin Concerto w/ Zeitlin / Kubelik, BRSO (Universal/DG) -- coupled with Szyerng's recording of Berg's VC - A Survivor from Warsaw; Variations for Orchestra; Five Pieces for Orchestra / Boulez, BBC SO, et al (Columbia LP)

NP: From Turrentine's second stint at Blue Note.

Now listening to Oistrakh's performance of Sibelius' Violin Concerto: