Oscar Peterson album for those who don't like much OP

[Daniel A]

[mjzee]

I never saw that Flanagan album before.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Here's Eddie Costa & Quill (on clarinet) on "Maria"...but the real meat for me is the writing. Of course, YouTube video is never anything but a muddied inference of the real thing, but still, you can hear that the inner voices are really working some magic. Writing is half the game, executing the parts to make everything speak like this is the other, and for my money,, hey aces on all counts here.

"This video is not available", Youtube tells me.

Just had a flashback:  I recall this being in the library of the radio station where I worked, but I hated the sound of the mono-to-stereo augmentation, and I think I lifted the tonearm after about 2 minutes.  I trust the copy I just ordered is the wonderful mono sound you've promised me, JSngry, or yer gittin' the bill!

How soon will this one enter the discussion?  (I admit to 'admiring', if not quite 'liking' it.  Somehow, Drama Meets Power....

[JSngry]

Geez, Ted, I hope you don't get some crappy re-channeled job, uh...did I promise that?

The Kenton WSS was apparently a bit of a hit on release, think it won a Grammy? I know I've said a lot of harsh things about Kenton over the years, but I've come to a bit of a peace with him, and have come to appreciate, and even have some affection/enthusiasm for significantly more of his output than before. But this album ain't one of them. For my tastes, it's the definitive example of trying to make the source something other than what it is, and I don't think this is material that stands up to that. It's pretty much as "driving" and "exciting" in its original state as it can stand up to being.

However, lest I be suspected of poop-stomping or some such, the Mellophonium Band period was a generally fruitful on for the Kenton Organization. Adventures In Jazz is a truly great one, and if you can get into that band's mathematically-precise concept on ballads (and I have come to enjoy it as being the thing that it is), so is Sophisticated Approach. And although I'm still not a "fan" of Johnny Richards at all, his Adventures In Time is sooooo loony and HUGE, and - key, perhaps, not really charged with a "theme" other than time signatures, it's either have you laughing out loud at the sheer audacity of it all, or running as far away as fast as you can. Laughing comes much easier to me than does running, so...

For the same reasons as with Kenton's version, the famed Buddy Rich WSS medley has never been anything I look forward to hearing, and not just because it ends up in that long drum solo. I like that band a lot, and I can't help but love Buddy in an arm's (or three) length a manner, but again, too much of something that was already verging on too much is not gonna end up improving it. Just my opinion.

I'm in the middle of a Brubeck revisit, and geez, that guy was just so quirky (I'm through looking for better words to describe him, and I say it with affection) that I kinda like that clip of "Maria", although I don't know that I'd buy the record on its own. What I like about it is that he's not so much concerned with adjusting the weight of the song as he is the shape of it, and that's a whole 'nother mindset. You can change shape by changing weight or by redistributing it, and it seems to me that Brubeck is redistributing it, which works for me.

As for Wet Side Story itself, maybe it's fatigue, maybe it's just time working its judgement, I don't know, but...I've had enough, and am willing to guesstimate that all the fuss has been generated more by the cultural climate from which it emerged and thrived than it is anything particularly eternally invigorating about the work itself. But I could be wrong.

and Ted, if you DO get a crappy re-channeling job, send me a PM, please. I ain't paying your bill, but there are probably other remediations available.