dg
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Post by dg on Dec 24, 2021 17:50:02 GMT
@theprettiestjazz says that big band jazz needn’t be “pedestrian and uninteresting” with “three of everything, overpowering and predictable.” It can be delicate and evocative, even from the best-known purveyors of the big sound. Here’s some big band jazz, from 1948, 1968 and 1998 by a Woody Herman Thundering Herd, Duke Ellington’s Famous Orchestra and Richie Cole and his Alto Madness Orchestra - with some very nice saxophone by Stan Getz, Johnny Hodges and Mr. Cole himself. These may not be to everyone’s taste, but variety, even in our listening, can make life more interesting. Intimations of truth and beauty may lurk in the least likely of places, from John Zorn to Kenny G, with some Hank Mobley in between. Hope you have a Merry Christmas. I’ll try my best.
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Post by bassman on Dec 24, 2021 19:21:50 GMT
dg, thanks for taking up the cudgels for big bands (if that should be considered a necessity in the first place). Putting the essence of jazz into an arrangement is the ultimate art, but you can't do it without knowing your musicians' vocabularies by heart. Ellington did, and Basie did. Kenton, in his own crazy way, also did. Mingus did, didn't he?
Is Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert “pedestrian and uninteresting”? No way. Have a jazzy X-mas, all of you.
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dg
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Posts: 125
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Post by dg on Dec 27, 2021 21:43:38 GMT
...Putting the essence of jazz into an arrangement is the ultimate art, but you can't do it without knowing your musicians' vocabularies by heart. Ellington did, and Basie did. Kenton, in his own crazy way, also did. Mingus did, didn't he?... Charles Mingus was very skillful at arranging for both a small and larger jazz band. A good example of each is for his beautiful and perhaps most well-known composition, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” aka “Theme for Lester Young.” It originally appeared on the 1959 album on Columbia, MINGUS AH UM, performed by a small group of just piano, bass, drums and saxophones. Mingus recorded GPPH again in 1963 for the Impulse album, MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS with a larger group of 11 players. Booker Ervin, playing tenor sax, shines as the principle soloist and wonderfully evokes Lester Young’s cool, though still emotive, style. Here, Mingus makes good use of the resources of a larger group and produces a fuller, more expansive version of the tune. For me it’s a tossup as to which is the better version, both having much to offer, including excellent sax solos on each. Mingus recorded it again, as a rather dragging funereal affair, for 1977’s THREE OR FOUR SHADES OF BLUE (on Atlantic), with a fine sax solo, probably by George Coleman, and the show-boating dual guitars of Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine, and finally for Joni Mitchell’s 1979 tribute album MINGUS (on Asylum). Overall, these are disappointing excursions, the latter indicating that having some of the top players in your back-up band – Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius – doth not a jazz vocalist make. Some “live” versions of GPPH, recorded at various venues, can also be found on line. GPPH is an extremely popular jazz composition – the “Second Hand Songs” site notes that it has been recorded an astonishing 199 times by a wide variety of musicians. I was surprised to see that the first cover of the tune after its appearance on MINGUS AH UM was on the 1966 album BERT AND JOHN (Transatlantic) by the British guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. These two players soon went on to form the group Pentangle with vocalist Jacqui McShee. The group’s excellent first album, from 1968, THE PENTANGLE (U.S. version on Reprise ) was, in my younger days, frequently on my turntable. |
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dg
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Posts: 125
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Post by dg on Dec 24, 2023 13:39:31 GMT
with love,
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