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Posted

a few examples come to mind:

leontyne price, with ray brown, andre previn, and grady tate, i think-right as the rain.

tchaikovsky---mozartiana

rachmaninoff-all night vigil-seems so different than anything else he did.

metallica with symphony orchestra

procol harum with the edmonton orchestra

Posted

Clapton did an intrumental piece with symphony orchestra on "24 Nights" (recorded live in 1991). I think it was called "Edge of Darkness" (if I remember right). It was only 6½ minutes long, but is sort of a mini guitar concerto. Moderately interesting -- couldn't have been better, could have been worse.

Posted

Shelly Manne and Coleman Hawkins playing free on Manne's Impulse! record 2-3-4.

Great session.

gotta look that one up. thanks!

I almost tossed this on earlier today, so hey it's spinning now.

I can't speak for Hawkins, but free improv was old hat for Manne. Check out The Three and The Two from 1954.

69420.jpg

Posted

I'd like to think that the "best" artists have no boundaries, but that's more often than not wishful thinking.

The ones who really don't (or, the ones who eventually realize that they don't, and run with it) are my truest heroes.

Posted

More and more classical singers are jumping on the crossover bandwagon, or at least taking it for a test drive. Jessye Norman, of course, is no stranger to pop or jazz oriented projects. This time, however, she makes a wholehearted effort to internalize the stylistic fingerprints and passionate syntax that define Michel Legrand's wistful, bittersweet ballads. The verdict, folks, is thumbs up, with a smile. But When La Jessye wraps her gold-chested pipes around Le Grand, she is not a diva but a storyteller. Granted, there are a few telltale diva signs, such as a few overpronounced words, or affectedly softened consonants (the word "to" often sounds like "do"). And her phrasing, gorgeously pliable as it is, can sound studied: when she clips "must" the first two times the word appears in "You Must Believe In Spring", you can bet your portfolio she'll do it again, and she does. Interestingly, the singer doesn't bring these mannerisms to the songs in French, a language this American soprano sings more idiomatically than English. And one wishes she wouldn't approach slides and embellishments so gingerly. But what Jessye Norman has that's lacking in many classical singers who attempt jazz is an innate sense of jazz time, for phrasing behind the beat. Legrand's rich accompaniments can hardly contain their rhapsodic excitement, although the anchoring rhythm section consisting of Ron Carter and Grady Tate provides ample derailment insurance. If you've pondered how the voices of Jessye Norman and Sarah Vaughn could be morphed, here's the answer.

--Jed Distler

Posted

I have to tip my hat to John Mclaughlin for successfully playing with people as different from each other as Elvin Jones & Tony Williams, Zakir Hussain & L Shankar, Paco DeLucia, and symphony orchestras.

Posted

My MAN as far as breaking the boundaries is concerned is Michael Ayrton. Painter, sculptor (his main gig), stage & costume designer, book illustrator, poet, novellist, art historian & critic, biographer, satirist - and general good fellow to have on chat shows.

He died in 1975, but I still admire the hell out of him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ayrton

MG

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