JSngry

Chet could rock the sunglasses and the junkie phrasing and the prom tux, that's why he gets the movie.

Thanks for the review. There were some brisk readings of Le Sacre in the 1950s - I'm thinking the Dorati Minneapolis? - but I get what you mean. It's amazing to me that 100+ years later, Le Sacre still shocks audiences. I don't know if that speaks to the inherent power of the piece, or the cluelessness of the audiences. Or both. It just seems that anyone with the wherewithal to buy a ticket to hear an orchestra play might know something about 20th Century music. Unfortunately...ya' know? I talked with the principal trombonist of the PSO, he's somebody I do the occasional wedding gig with (sic), and I sensed that he was very proud of having been a part of this, that it was more than just another gig for him. I told him I was happy to have bought the tickets, that it was more than just another show for me as a local listener. Maybe not in The Bigger World Of All Time, but...nobody alive today saw the Grand Canyon being formed, but there it is anyway, you can pretend it's not there, but good luck with that.

Tinsel, at last on you Tube. Some guys played their heart out, Willie wrote his heart out. And played it, too. Arrangement - gorgeous arrangement - by the otherwise cringe-inducing (for me) Rob McConnell. Just goes to show ya'.

Let's hear it for arranger Mike Abene. Alto solo by Lanny Morgan. Truth be told, that's a very good album by a very good band (as I know you know), anachronistic though it was becoming, claustrophobic as it might have been feeling from a lot of different perspectives.

Ok, this has not been on YouTube before (or not for a very long time, if so)...here's the first time I heard Ronnie Cuber. Just balls on ATTACK mode, but when you're 15-16, you go for that kind of thing, and from time to time, I still do.

If good taste and/or real-time simultaneity are not deal-breakers, here ya' go (once the alto solo is over)!

Well, at least he had good teeth, or so it appears. Best junkie teeth I've ever seen, that's for sure!

Countless examples in Brubeck/Desmond, the whole improvised counterpoint thing that was one of their calling cards as they came to fame.

And no bad teeth. Like one young lady told me when relating her rejection of a family-proposed suitor (she came from a culture where such things still are fairly common), "I'm not making a baby that's gonna maybe have a jacked-up grill".

So you're telling me that the answer to the question "somebody just listened to my song on Spotify, how much did I just make?" is nothing more than. "Well, that depends..."? Seriously?

How does the royalty rate for Spotify compare to the royalty rate for conventional AM-FM radio play (when there used to be that in quantity)? Different experiences, I know, but when broken down into Hit Song X generates so much per hit on Spotify vs Hit Song X generates so much per play on WEEP-FM, what are we looking at?

Interesting, and enjoyable, like a well-played minor-league baseball game, and I do mean that in a positive sense. The DFW metroplex is overflowing with young talent, mostly out of UNT, but also a great deal from the area's numbers of advanced orchestral programs at the high school level. All these young people keep wanting to play, and the DSO/FWSO only have so many chairs, so there's...overflow, and it does create sort of a "farm system". We have more than a few "suburban" orchestras around here who increasingly seem to exist as tax breaks and entertainment organizations long before they do actual musical presences. The PSO is one such group, but the level of players has taken a notable turn for the better, and this is the first time I know that they've ever attempted something even remotely like Rite. Plano's orchestra, after years of haggling with the AFM finally resolved their issues about players being employees rather than contractors, with the predictable result - some stabilization could begin to take root, principles could be recruited more aggressively than before, and the overall standards could be set a little higher, more was being offered, and more was being asked in return. So the principals chairs are more likely now to be filled with tenured faculty from the areas' better musical schools. Not a bad combination of ingredients, for a "local" orchestra, not at all. So, it's getting to be a good band. The energy and focus are there to tackle a piece like Rite, and what miscues there were were occasional, and came in the realm of intonation on tightly voiced woodwind passages, occasional bleatings out of the french horns and tuba, but temporary is all they were, glitches, not ongoing flaws. And - recoveries were knowing and immediate. Tempo was..."safe" this was no Michael Tilson Thomas turning the whole thing into a dizzying midway ride, this was firmly mid-1950s in design,but the effect was not one of retro-comfort, it was a this is where this orchestra can play it to where there are still challenges and still opportunities to nail it things. Very much a "real time" listening experience for a listener, knda like root-root-rooting for the home team, and when it was over, you felt that they had won the game, although pshew, it got tight there a couple of times. But they won! Don't know how much more of this programming we'll be seeing out of the PSO, if the crowd reaction was any indicator...pleasant applause, but a lot of looks back and forth and overheard commentaries during intermission about uhhhh....I liked the loud parts well enough....lots of drums, eh (and btw - the percussionists excelled, nicely played!)?' stuff like that. But hell, down the road a piece, the DSO, still resolutely working on becoming a "world class" orchestra", programs a whole season that very rarely steps into the 20th Century, so kudos to the PSO for at least doing a one-off from the Christmas shows and Sinatra tributes and such of their usual fare, to give everybody involved an opportunity at some real meat. The second piece of the evening, was a real treat as well, although for totally different reasons. Emanuel Borok's reading of the Brahms was a totally anti-star-soloist performance. No body drama, no "personalized" interpretations of dynamics, tempo, or attack,. This is a guy who's career was made being a section player/concert-master, and he was a pretty good one at that. So he was stepping out there and playing with an attitude that seems to be this music is great enough that I don't have to do anything extra to it. I just need to stand here and play it right, play it as well as it can be played, and everything else will take care of itself. And as far as I'm concerned, it worked. Just old-school craftsmanship on display in its best manifestation, just play the music as well as it can be played and everything else will take care of itself. The whole program was like that, actually. Very "local" but also very rewarding because of that. Activist listening can come from several different angles. Last night came from, here's the material, here's the players, let's see if either/both can hold up to the other, no sure things anywhere here. In the end, it was a nice night out, even if the weather was kind of schmutzy.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/727688

Dido and Aeneas Jug & Dodo Dick and Dee Dee

Are ya' like me? When you heard "Little Lulu" for the first time, didja' kinda think, ok, real virtues vs real vices, all at once...this is gonna be somebody else's drama from here on out, take the needle up off the record and put something, anything else on without thinking twice or looking back?

Bo-Nash Ping Bodie Hugh Brodie