Harold Shapero, R.I.P.

[jazztrain]

I completely missed this until I saw a remembrance last night in a local paper:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x776195287/Brandeis-professor-Harold-Shapero-an-inspiring-teacher-composer#axzz2UnONvENu

My apologies if it was already noted elsewhere.

A few obits:

N.Y. Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/arts/music/harold-shapero-93-american-neo-classical-composer-dies.html

Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/23/harold-shapero-composer-inventive-midcentury-scores-helped-define-american-neoclassical-style/loNMAkHSWPy8Ux2cOxGjRN/story.html

Some of us are, no doubt, familiar with his "On Green Mountain" on this:

[sgcim]

I enjoyed his neo-classical music. I was listening to his String Quartet years ago, and almost had a heart attack when I heard him use "Giant Steps" changes in one section!

It was written in approx. 1950, so it pre-dated 'Trane by about nine years. RIP HS

[jeffcrom]

Sorry to hear this, although this is one of those cases where I assumed he had already passed. I like "On Green Mountain," so when I found a 1957 MGM LP of his Serenade for String Orchestra, I grabbed it. It's a very nice piece, but those are still the only two compositions of his that I've heard.

[JohnS]

Always loved the version on the Brandies Festival album. Also on Outstanding Jazz Compositions of the 20th Century. One to play later today.

[jazztrain]

Sorry to hear this, although this is one of those cases where I assumed he had already passed. I like "On Green Mountain," so when I found a 1957 MGM LP of his Serenade for String Orchestra, I grabbed it. It's a very nice piece, but those are still the only two compositions of his that I've heard.

I was also surprised, especially when I learned that he grew up in the city where I live, taught where my wife went to graduate school, and had been living in the city where I work.

It turns out that I have "On Green Mountain" on this lp and not on the double album whose image I posted originally:

[jeffcrom]

That last post shows the original issue, a wonderful album, unless you can't abide third stream music. The picture in the first post was a 1960s reissue which added an album's worth of material which was unrelated, except that it was compositionally-oriented, third-streamy jazz. Three of the Brandeis Modern Jazz Concert pieces, including "On Green Mountain," also showed up on this 1981 issue:

That's where I first heard the Shapero piece, back in the pre-internet days, when both of the first two issues were just impossible to find. Amazingly, the Modern Jazz Concert album has not been legitimately reissued in full on CD (although I think the pirates have gotten to it). Four of the pieces appeared on The Birth of the Third Stream, but not "On Green Mountain."

[Chuck Nessa]

Sorry, I always thought "On Green Mountain" was the lamest work on any of the above mentioned packages.

[Larry Kart]

Sorry, I always thought "On Green Mountain" was the lamest work on any of the above mentioned packages.

Me, too.

[jeffcrom]

Sorry, I always thought "On Green Mountain" was the lamest work on any of the above mentioned packages.

Me, too.

Just spun the album again, inspired by this thread, and more than ever, I think the Modern Jazz Concert album is a magnificent achievement. More detailed thoughts on the album are coming soon, but probably not in this thread.

I think I understand where y'all are coming from about "On Green Mountain." More than any other piece on the record, it contains passages of overt "classicism," some of which sound kind of stilted. I certainly don't think it's the best piece on the album. Before tonight, I would have put it at #4 (out of six pieces), but Gunther Schuller's "Transformation" went up in my estimation with this most recent spin. Just to engage in a kind of stupid exercise, here's my ranking:

George Russell - All About Rosie

Milton Babbitt - All Set

Charles Mingus - Revelations

Gunther Schuller - Transformation

Harold Shapero - On Green Mountain

Jimmy Giuffre - Suspensions

Believe me, it hurts me to put Giuffre's piece last, because I truly love his music. But with "Suspensions," there's no there there. It's sound and tissue without music. And notice that i put George Russell before Milton Babbitt. Not by much, maybe.

"On Green Mountain" is a very unified, well-constructed piece, to my ears. And Shapero uses improvisation in a very interesting way - in a compositional way, if that makes sense. For instance, he has Art Farmer begin his solo with the Monteverdi theme which is the basis of the piece, then move further and further away into free (non-thematic) improvisation. It works very well. And Shapero's harmonization of the Monteverdi at the beginning and end of the piece is brilliant and unusual.

None of which means you have to like it, of course.

On the other hand, Mingus' "Revelations" is kind of a mess, compositionally. It's not really a composition; it's a string of episodes. But what makes it such good music (and makes me rate it higher than the Shapero piece) is that the episodes are, for the most part, pretty amazing. It's a string of episodes written by Charles F-ing Mingus!

And of course, Shapero deserves props for the title - calling a piece based on Monteverdi "On Green Mountain" is pretty damn funny.

[Chuck Nessa]

Sorry, I always thought "On Green Mountain" was the lamest work on any of the above mentioned packages.

Me, too.

And of course, Shapero deserves props for the title - calling a piece based on Monteverdi "On Green Mountain" is pretty damn funny.

As clever as the music.

[Larry Kart]

The British have a term for things like "On Green Mountain" -- "twee" ("affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint)." And the awkwardnesses/contortions that Jimmy Knepper and Hal McKusick (on tenor) are subjected to!

P.S. I like "Suspensions." Simple to the point of being a bit simple-minded but forceful --- an extended, doggedly-solemn shout chorus.

[sgcim]

I recently found a copy of the score to "All About Rosie", which had parts for Bassoon and French Horn, but no part for vibes.

On Youtube, there's a nice recording of it, but it features Teddy Charles on vibes.

Does the Modern Jazz Concert LP have TC on it?

Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band also recorded a big band version of it.

[JohnS]

On Green Mountain is perhaps a little twee but it has great charm. I like it a lot, and it has that happy feel.

[Larry Kart]

sgcim -- Yes, to Teddy Charles presence at Brandeis. Complete personnel here:

http://www.discogs.com/Bill-Evans-Gunther-Schuller-George-Russell-Brandeis-Jazz-Festival/release/2148930

On Green Mountain is perhaps a little twee but it has great charm. I like it a lot, and it has that happy feel.

Whenever I hear that prancing, medium-up, walking-bass bassoon part, I come close to losing my cookies.

[AllenLowe]

well, I'm gonna have to dig it out again; as I recall I did not like Green Mountain (the piece or the coffee). Going to have to listen again.

[Larry Kart]

I should compare the Brandeis recording of Babbitt's "All Set" with the 1974 one that Arthur Weisberg did for Nonesuch. Also, FWIW, the flute player on the Brandeis concert, Robert DiDomenica, was an excellent composer in a very individual post-Alban Berg manner.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/25/robert-didomenica-needham-composer-and-flutist-was-dean-teacher-new-england-conservatory/5ataKd4HauLh2K97Ez6xtL/story.html

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-DiDomenica-Three-Orchestral-Works/dp/B00000DCRJ/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370182844&sr=1-2&keywords=robert+didomenica

http://www.amazon.com/First-Performances-Piano-Robert-Domenica/dp/B000005VXJ/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1370182800&sr=1-3&keywords=robert+didomenica

There's also a piece by him on Spotify.

[jeffcrom]

The Weisberg "All Set" is certainly cleaner than the Brandeis version, and it's probably a "better" performance by classical standards, but the jazz players manage to inject a little grease into the earlier version. In an atonal way, of course.

[Larry Kart]

The Weisberg "All Set" is certainly cleaner than the Brandeis version, and it's probably a "better" performance by classical standards, but the jazz players manage to inject a little grease into the earlier version. In an atonal way, of course.

I'll listen when I have time, but the late Weisberg was a terrific conductor. His recording of Wolpe's Chamber Piece No. l for Nonesuch is one of the best of any piece of "modern music" ever -- locked in and on fire:

He also did a heck of a job on Wolpe's Symphony -- not flawless (it's a live recording)but appropriately passionate:

A girl I knew from high school, Carol Buck, was in the cello section on that one.

[Larry Kart]

Then there's Weisberg's recording of Wolpe's most jazz-involved piece, the Quartet for Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, Piano, and Percussion: