Larry Kart

Just listened to what has to be one of Herseth's finest hours, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with CSO players conducted very stylishly by James Levine. The disc, "Music from Ravinia, Vol. 1" (RCA), from 1978 -- I have it on LP but I've seen it on CD*** -- also includes an excellent Concerto No. 5 with Levine tearing up the pea-patch on harpsichord and the Wedding Cantata with Kathleen Battle, a performance renowned for the playing of oboist Ray Still. In any case, Herseth is SO fine here, joyous music-making. *** http://www.amazon.com/Music-Ravinia-Brandenburg-Concerto-Cantata/dp/B000003FC3

Can't pick one -- five would be "Nonaah," "L-R-G/The Maze, etc.", "Sound," "Congliptious," and "Old/Quartet." And I can think of many more.

Paray, Detroit S.O., Franck Symphony (Mercury) Francescatti, Mitropoulos, N.Y. Phil., Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Concerti (Columbia) God bless thrift shops.

Would like to know, along "stop him before he kills again" lines, who it was on WKCR who offered that wildly erroneous info about Billy Bauer taking Christian's place with B.G.

Any thoughts on him? Best recordings? I was led to listen to some things on Spotify and was intrigued. An individual voice, I thought. Especially nice "speaking" tone, somewhat akin to Harold Land's at times, I thought. Would have liked to acquire Rosengren's Lars Gullin tribute album "Late Date" but was daunted by the price -- more than $500! BTW, on "Late Date" there's a Gullin piece with a great 1950s title, "Decent Eyes."

What a kick it was to hear "The Tenor Stylings of Bill Barron" and "Now Hear This!" when they first came out. B.B. was in effect a "third way," maybe even a "fourth."

Positive response to the Chicago Bears draft from Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune, who has lots of experience and is far from a "homer": http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-spt-0429-pompei-column-bears-20130429,0,3565319.column

What a job! And what a building! Must pay a visit to it.

I remember seeing/hearing him play at Ravinia when I was in my early teens. Very impressive experience.

FWIW, I believe that Miles is on record as a fan of Getz's ballad playing, its melodicism in particular, and we know that Miles is never wrong.

I love Konitz, but if you think he plays in tune consistently.... As Lee himself readily admits, he plays sharp a great deal, especially in recent years, albeit to achieve what he feels are legitimate musical ends.

What I don't like about "Focus" (and I like a good deal of it) are the moments when Getz begins to make his then prevalent "mooing"/"whining" gestures. Such timbral signs of overt emotion make me gag when they come from most any player, but from Stan they really seem pasted on.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/sondheim-and-marsalis-to-collaborate-on-show-for-city-center/ "The conceit of the show is that Mr. Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will arrange and interpret about two dozen of Mr. Sondheim’s romantic songs, all of which have some connection to New York City."

Bassist Peter Ind's 1967 "Time for Improvisation" is an album of nothing but walking bass lines on the changes of various standards. Sounds like it would be boring, but it's fascinating. http://www.peterind.com/wave_catalogue.htm

I think it's very tricky to work back from what we know or think we know about a musician on a personal level to that musician's playing (or in Allen's example intuit someone's personality from his playing and then have it confirmed by personal contact and/or reliable information later on), a la Stan Getz's "playing in many respects is narcissitic, reflecting certain personality traits." First, there was a period when IMO Getz's playing did sound quite narcissistic, the time around the recording of "Focus" when he often would kind of moo or moan through the horn in a manner I found quite creepy; but that period stands in contrast, again IMO, with most of the rest of Getz's music, while one feels fairly certain that Getz the man was the same "nice bunch of guys" human being throughout his career. Then there's the case of Artie Shaw -- a narcissistic jerk in the very top class, but he pretty much played like angel, so go figure. I once tried in print to read the tea leaves of the relationship between Art Pepper's music and Pepper the person (it's in my book), but I think I failed.

"Stan Getz & J.J. Johnson at the Opera House": http://www.amazon.com/At-Opera-House-Stan-Getz/dp/B00000472O/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1366746750&sr=1-2&keywords=getz+opera+house The album combines tracks from two different JATP tour concerts, from 1958 IIRC -- one in Chicago (in mono, and at the Opera House), the other in Los Angeles (in stereo, at the Shrine Auditorium IIRC). IMO the mono tracks from Chicago are superb (they were on the original LP), the interaction between Getz and Johnson quite remarkable, but the Los Angeles stereo performances of the same pieces are only so-so.

I meant that I heard some similarities (in particular, short-breathed, rhythmically compulsive, "hocket-y" phrasing) between Donahue and Montrose as soloists, not between the style of Donahue's band and Montrose (though of course Donahue's solo work was heard within the context of his bands).

The Hep albums are what you want to check out. As for opportunities for influence, both Donohue and Montrose came from Detroit, though Donohue of course was a good deal older. A comment from Amazon on one of the Hep albums: 'Holy Cow does this thing swing like crazy! The finest group of all the "War" bands assembled. The trumpet section alone makes the knees buckle -- Conrad Gozzo,Frank Beach, Johnny Best and Don Jacoby! Sam basically took over Artie Shaw's Navy Orchestra, but turned it into a more "Basie" styled swing outfit. And boy did he succeed!!' Me again. Donohue added an extra alto to the sax section, which allowed him to indulge in some rich, thick voicings.

If I haven't said it before, Yakov Kasman: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=147390

It's all good so far, with the possible exception of "Festival," a track that attempts to recreate the excitement of Paul's Newport solo, and another track from the Emarcy date that's too fast for Paul's comfort. "Festival" goes on too long, but even so it has its moments. The mellower tracks have some gorgeous Gonsalves. And again there are some nice Terry originals.

Picked this up yesterday: http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Montrose-Blues-Vanilla-Horns/dp/B0032BH1OM and Montrose's style as a soloist and a writer remains as peculiar to me now as it did back then. In particular, as a player it's the peculiar neo-folksy/speech-like character of his lines, not unlike on the neo-folksy side what Jimmy Giuffre would get into a bit later on with his "Train and the River" trio, while the typically rather short-breathed, speech-like, "hocket-y" phrasing reminds a bit of Shafi Hadi. Montrose's often contrapuntal writing (though it usually lacks all trace of the typical West Coast "progressive" flavor) flowers (as did his solo work) in the company of his close friend baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon, who died in a car accident in 1955, but absent Gordon both his writing and playing can sound rather finicky at times and is marked by a rather "Indian beat" rhythmic feel, if you know what I mean -- a la "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters" or "Hawaiian War Chant." He made a late album for Don Schlitten, which I've never heard. His obit: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jack-montrose-474568.html Just thought of who Montrose's solo style reminds me of -- Sam Donahue! Not impossible that there was some influence there; Donahue was a popular player in the '40s and led a fine service band, which he took over from Artie Shaw after Shaw was invalided back to the States.

Some very nice 1956-'57 Gonsalves here: http://www.amazon.com/Cookin-Paul-Gonsalves/dp/B0010T4C6I/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1366678433&sr=1-3&keywords=paul+gonsalves+fresh+sound Combines his part of an Emarcy anthology, his own Argo album and an Argo album led by Jimmy Woode, all dates with Clark Terry, who contributes several handsome pieces to Paul's Argo album. That album also includes the rather eccentric Chicago pianist Willie Jones, who sounds like Milt Buckner on acid. Willie Jones info: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/wiljo.html And there's a picture of Betty Dupree there.

Love "Old Devil Moon" -- what a swing feel it has; time is being eaten alive there.

Not before Brian Sandstrom or Curt Bley from the Russell crew or Russell Thorne from the earlier Joe Daley trio! Maybe not before Eddie de Haas, Charles Clark, Leonard Jones, Mchaka Uba and a bunch of others. Kessler is wonderful but the Chicago heritage is rich. edit to ad a comma. Don't forget Betty Dupree. I'll never forget her on the stand at the Gate of Horn on Monday nights circa 1956-7 in IIRC a skin-tight yellow cocktail dress. Also at that venue on Monday nights as a member of the more or less regular rhythm section (with Jodie Christian and Wilbur Campbell), Victor Sproles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szymon_Goldberg If you have Spotify check out the Goldberg/Lupu K. 521. It's a great performance IMO of one of IMO the greatest pieces ever written. If you plug in Goldberg Lupu Mozart on Spotify, you'll get the whole set but undifferentiated. K. 521 begins sixth from the bottom of the whole schmeer.