Classical music covered by jazz musicians

[Christiern]

Covered? Or just played by?

Was Landa Wandowska covering Scarlatti every time she played one of his compositions?

now tell us you didn't get what he meant... besides i think he wanted to exclude stuff like benny goodman doing Mozart's clarinet concerto...

In which case, we are talking about jazz interpretations of classical music. That's not a "cover" as much as it is a transposal. Putting out one's own version of a current hit is a cover. Doing so after the original hit has run its course is, well, just another version.

BTW, alociswhatever, I am one who likes Kenton's interpretations of Wagner.

Edited November 27, 2007 by Christiern

[alocispepraluger102]

"BTW, alociswhatever, I am one who likes Kenton's interpretations of Wagner. "

Bravo!

[B. Clugston]

Mike Westbrook did two albums of Rossini.

Uri Caine had a great Mozart disc out last year and will soon release a Verdi disc.

The second Naked City album had covers of Debussy, Scriabin, Messiaen and Ives.

Willem Breuker covered "Bolero."

[Chas]

On Jazz of Two Cities Warne Marsh does Tchaikovsky's Opus # 42 Mt. 3

[Ron S]

A couple of CDs full of jazz covers of classical pieces on Venus:

John DiMartino's trio covering various Mozart pieces

and Steve Kuhn's trio covering various pieces by Chopin, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Faure, and Brahms

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

am i the only person alive(?) who digs kenton's wagner recording?

Definitely!

I recently got the John Kirby Sextet complete Columbia and RCA Victor recordings (1939-1942) on Definitive. It includes:

Greig's "Anitra's dance"

Chopin's "Minute watz" and "Fantasy impromptu"

Dvorak's "Humoresque"

Schubert's "Serenade"

Lehar's "Frasquita serenade"

Donizetti's sextet from "Lucia"

"Bounce of the sugar plum fairy"

"Beethoven riffs on" (I don't recognise this, or don't remember recognising it)

All very nice stuff.

Not to forget, Grant Green's version of the Mozart 40th symphony 1st movement theme, with Idris Muhammad stoking the engine!

And Purcell (!) is represented by Grover Washington Jr's "Love song 1700".

MG

[sidewinder]

Not to forget, Grant Green's version of the Mozart 40th symphony 1st movement theme, with Idris Muhammad stoking the engine!

On 'Visions', right?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Not to forget, Grant Green's version of the Mozart 40th symphony 1st movement theme, with Idris Muhammad stoking the engine!

On 'Visions', right?

Yup!

MG

[Peter Friedman]

Red Square Blue - Jazz Impressions Of Russian Composers - Angel

with: Fred Hersch,James Newton,Toots Thielemans, Phil Woods, Erik Friedlander,Steve LaSpina, Jeff Hirshfield

Fred Hersch - The French Collection - Jazz Impressions - Angel

pieces by Debussy, Ravel, Faure,Poulenc, & Satie

played by Eddie Daniels, Toots Thielemans, Kevin Eubank, Fred Hersch, Steve Laspina, Joey Baron or Jeff Hieshfield

[Peter Friedman]

Pianist Kenny Drew played a classical piece on many of his trio albums. Here are some of them.

Evergreen - Alfa Jazz - Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

The Lullaby - Baystate - Brahms - Wiegenlied

Tippin' - Baystate - Rodrigo - Concerto De Aranjuez

Dreams - Baystate - Schubert - Traumerei

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ah yes, that reminds me - the slow movement from Rodrigo's guitar concerto has also been recorded by Ximo Tebar, on his album "Son Mediterraneo".

(Miles Davis did it, too.)

MG

[king ubu]

Yusef Lateef does "Goin' Home" (from some Dvorak thingie) on this great album:

On this great one, there's Satie's "First Gymnopédie":

And the "Volga Rhythm Song" on 'teef's "Jazz 'round the World" is another take-off from a classical (originally folk? I don't know) theme.

Westbrook/Rossini is fine, btw. I got one of the Hat Hut CDs (the 2CD set, I think that's the live recording, the other being a studio production?).

Enrico Rava does "Carmen":

now this is *not* jazz, but John Surman and Barry Guy are involved in this fascinating disc dedicated to compositions/songs by John Dowland:

Hilliard's John Potter is doing the singing, Guy's wife Maya Homburger is on baroque violin, and Stephen Stubbs on lute. These songs would be a nice base for some kind of lyrical appropriation, I'm sure.

[mikeweil]

mjq concierto de aranjuez on space.

The MJQ did that piece at least three times, IIRC, on "Space", on the Atlantic LP with Laurindo Almeida, and on an orchestral LP.

It is only the middle movement, the Adagio, from Rodrigo's Concierto, BTW.

Miles Davis recorded Gil Evans' arrangement on "Sketches of Spain", Jim Hall, did it on his CTI LP "Concierto".

Joe Locke & Geoffrey Keezer recorded it on their second New Sound Quartet SACD, "Summertime".

It is one of the classical pieces most often recorded by jazz musicians.

[mikeweil]

On this great one, there's Satie's "First Gymnopédie":

The 1st Gymnopédie is probably the classical piece recorded the second most often by jazz musicians - I remember a radio feature on German local hr radio listing about 20 versions by jazz and pop musicians.

Hubert Laws recorded this on the CTI album "In The Beginning"; Blood, Sweat & Tears on their 2nd self-tiltled LP.

Jacques Loussier made a whole CD of Satie Pieces, as did the Vienna Art Orchestra ("The Minimalism of Erik Satie").

Herbie Mann recorded the 2nd Gymnopédie on his Atlantic LP "Nirvana" with Bill Evans.

Edited December 3, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

Hubert Laws' "Afro-Classic" is a whole album of jazz-treated classical pieces by J.S. Bach, Stravinsky, etc.

There are treatments of classical pieces on his MusicMasters CDs as well, Beethoven and the like, but I found them somewhat over-arranged.

[mikeweil]

... and there's another CTI, "The Rite of Spring":

[king ubu]

On this great one, there's Satie's "First Gymnopédie":

The 1st Gymnopédie is probably the classical piece recorded the second most often by jazz musicians - I remember a radio feature on German local hr radio listing about 20 versions by jazz and pop musicians.

Hubert Laws recorded this on the CTI album "In The Beginning"; Blood, Sweat & Tears on their 2nd self-tiltled LP.

Jacques Loussier made a whole CD of Satie Pieces, as did the Vienna Art Orchestra ("The Minimalism of Erik Satie").

which ("Minimalism") is one of the most special ever adaptions of classical material!

Herbie Mann recorded the 2nd Gymnopédie on his Atlantic LP "Nirvana" with Bill Evans.

yup, got that one, too...

And here's another very good one, featuring Johnny Griffin on some tracks:

The first of the Hubert Laws albums I've heard... my dad has (had? I once lent it to someone, not sure I ever got it back... not that big a loss anyway) got that one. Also he has (had? same someone...) another kitschy overproduced LP of Laws doing... Ravel's "Bolero", of course...

Jacky Terrasson also did the Bolero (not sure if on officially released albums).

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Mention of CTI reminds me of the huge disco hit

"2001" (aka Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra") - Deodato

Also on the same album was Debussy's "Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun" and on the follow up, Ravel's "Pavane pour une enfant defunte".

In addition, there are hundreds of versions of Borodin's music from "Kismet" (including a whole album by the Montgomerys - "Baubles bangles & beads" must be the most recorded classic. And it's on Deodato's first album, too, which is what reminded me.

MG

[Ron S]

mjq concierto de aranjuez on space.

The MJQ did that piece at least three times, IIRC, on "Space", on the Atlantic LP with Laurindo Almeida, and on an orchestral LP.

And also live on "The Complete Last Concert". I don't think they ever recorded it with an orchestra, but I could be mistaken.

Edited December 3, 2007 by Ron S

[Michael Weiss]

I practice a lot of classical music at home - Scriabin, Feinberg, Messiaen, Szymanowski, Alexandrov - all music with the kind of harmonies, melodies and rhythms a jazz musician can salivate over. But every time I've thought about arranging one of these pieces for my group, the idea doesn't sit well, kind of like heartburn; the original always sounds so much better in its own context. So it was with no small degree of satisfaction to finally be able to conceptualize an arrangement of a Roslavets prelude for my group (Largo, 1915) which we'll record next year.

Here's a short sample (of the original) from here:

I used to play a nice arrangement of Scriabin's prelude for left hand alone (Op. 9) with Art Farmer. I think it was arranged by Fritz Pauer.

Edited December 11, 2007 by Michael Weiss

[DMP]

Has anyone mentioned Bill Evans' album on Verve?

[bary01]

By Mc Coy Tyner

- Prelude in Em Opus 24 No 4 (Chopin)

- Piano Sonata No 8 in Cm (Beethoven)

By Gerad Badini ( French saxophonist and Big Band Leader )

- Children's Corner (Debussy)

- Suite Bergamasque (Debussy)

- La plus que Lente (Debussy)

By Francy Boland

- Frühlingsstimmen (Johann Strauss)

- Kaiservalser (Johann Strauss)

- Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss)

[DMP]

In the Columbia Records "disco jazz" period there's Maynard Ferguson doing "Pagliacci" and "Scheherazade," and Hubert Laws doing "Romeo and Juliet" (the Tchaikovsky one). Also Paul Desmond doing Purcell on "Skylark."

[Peter Friedman]

Vladimir Shafranov Trio - Prelude No.20 Chopin on KIDS ARE PRETTY PEOPLE - Altier Sawano

[Kalo]

Willie "the Lion" Smith plays a stride version of Chopin's "Polonaise" on this album Music on My Mind available in the Jazz in Paris series.

Lee Konitz interprets three pieces from Bartok's "Mikrokosmos" on his Milestone album Peacemeal.

Also there's the excellent Lee Konitz & the Axis String Quartet Play French Impressionist Music from the 20th Century, arranged by Ohad Talmor.