William O. Smith on Contemporary

[JSngry]

Have these seen any kind of a reissue or any other packaging, legit or otherwise? Has anybody here ever heard either/both?

 

[mikeweil]

Doesn't look like they were reissued. Sure looks interesting, considering he studied with Milhaud, among others. I only know his recordings with Brubeck and the Folk Jazz LP with Jim Hall, which is excellent. 

[JSngry]

 

not played by the composer....

again, not by the composer, but....just sayin'...

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i saw him do that!

[sgcim]

A friend of mine played a multi-movement piece WOS wrote for jazz ensemble (like "All About Rosie"),for us before a session, which I enjoyed tremendously. Along the lines of pre-LCC George Russell.

My friend met and hung with Smith  in Europe when they both won the Prix de Rome in their respective fields, so the piece could have been a European production.

 

[JSngry]

There's a record on CRI of Orchestra USA playing one of his "Bill Smith" works that very much fits that description. Not released until a decade or do after the fact 

 

 

 

[sgcim]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

There's a record on CRI of Orchestra USA playing one of his "Bill Smith" works that very much fits that description. Not released until a decade or do after the fact 

 

 

 

That's probably it.

[JSngry]

This one:

[HutchFan]

Jim,

Have you heard this LP?

Bill Smith - Sonorities (Edipan, Italy)
Recorded in 1977 -- with Enrico Pieranunzi (p), Giovanni Tommaso (b), and Pepito Pignatelli (d)

I stumbled across it on discogs when I was digging into Pieranunzi's discography, but I've never heard it. 

Doesn't appear to be through-composed, "classical" music.

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by HutchFan

[JSngry]

Yeah, that's a  "Bill Smith"  record...might be interesting nonetheless.

Thinking back on that time that some Brubeck band toured with Perry Robertson abd thinking that it was an ..unexpected choice. Realizing now that, ok, there was THIS guy from a while back, they've been there before.

 

[sgcim]

15 hours ago, JSngry said:

This one:

CRI was a great record label.I used to buy their vinyl every week at Tower's budget LP store in the city. I know they went to cassette tapes at one point, but did they ever go to CDs?

[sgcim]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Yeah, that's a  "Bill Smith"  record...might be interesting nonetheless.

Thinking back on that time that some Brubeck band toured with Perry Robertson abd thinking that it was an ..unexpected choice. Realizing now that, ok, there was THIS guy from a while back, they've been there before.

 

Perry R. studied withTony Scott and used the same embouchure that Scott used; no upper teeth on the mouthpiece, just lips. But Scott had a freak, enlarged diaphragm. Scott used to play lying on the floor and tell Perry to jump on his stomach while Scott was playing the clarinet. Scott didn't even feel it! Perry had a normal diaphragm, so he couldn't get the same sound as Scott, or play those long lines without a breath that Scott could play.

Scott was one of the first clarinetists to bring Bird to the clarinet, then he became one of the first to bring Trane to it; by virtue of his freak diaphragm.

[JSngry]

CRI does have CDs of archival material.

[sgcim]

On 5/3/2021 at 2:39 PM, JSngry said:

CRI does have CDs of archival material.

Here's another thing that Bill did on Contemporary that I never heard, and it's just one movement of four, with him playing clarinet! I don't know why he wasn't considered the next Buddy DeFranco PLUS Geo. Russell, Gil Evans, etc..This thing was done by Shelly Manne back in 1956.

Some clarinet player named McGuiness recently recorded the whole thing and videotaped it. I asked my friend who received the Grand Prix in Rome along with Bill in the 60s, and he never heard of the chamber music LP you mentioned on Contemporary.

Here's Mike McGinnis playing it live:

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by sgcim

[JSngry]

Two LPs!

Not sure how many such LPs Contemporary did, but I did find one of Vernon Duke compositions (not songs, compositions) that was totally cool. So there seemed to have been a window for such things at the label.

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Two LPs!

Not sure how many such LPs Contemporary did, but I did find one of Vernon Duke compositions (not songs, compositions) that was totally cool. So there seemed to have been a window for such things at the label.

Yeah, I always wanted to hear some of Vladimir Duchevsky's 'serious' music. Anyone who could write Autumn in NY must have written some interesting stuff.

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Two LPs!

Not sure how many such LPs Contemporary did, but I did find one of Vernon Duke compositions (not songs, compositions) that was totally cool. So there seemed to have been a window for such things at the label.

I believe that Duke was a prime instigator of this side of Koenig's interests. A side/subsidiary Koenig  label in that vein was Society for Forgotten Music. Again an offspring in part of Duke's interests; I believe, it focused on semi-obscure 19th and 18th Century ,music. I have a few SFM albums, and they're quite good. Performers are top-level LA studio musicians, like violinist Israel Baker.

Society for Forgotten Music Label Discography 1000 mono /2000 stereo 12 inch series:

SFM 1001mono, 7006 stereo – Mendelssohn: Quartet In E flat and Glinka:Quartet in F - Westwood Quartet [5/58] Released in stereo on Stereo Records 7006.

SFM 1002 mono – Jan Ladislaw Dussek: Piano Music – Hermanns & Stoneridge [6/58] No stereo release.

SFM 1003 mono, 7014 stereo - Works of Chausson: Quartet in A Op. 30 (piano) - Andre Previn and the Roth Quartet [1958] Released in stereo on Stereo Records 7014.

SFM 1004 mono, 7023 stereo - Works of Guillaume Lekeu: Trio in C – Ryshna, Baker And Kaparoff [1958] Release in stereo on Stereo Records 7023.

SFM 1005 mono, 2005 stereo – Michael Haydn Quintets in C & G for Strings – Roth Quartet, Halleux [1959] SFM 1006 mono, 2006 stereo – Viotti: Quartets in B flat and G for Strings – Baker Quartet [1959]

SFM 1007 mono, 2007 stereo – Mily Balakirev Sonata: Berceuse Nocturne; Valse – Ryshna

SFM 1008 mono, 2008 stereo – Lekeu Piano Quartet; Cello Sonata, Trois Poemes Van den Burg, Duke, McCraken– Ryshna, Baker Quartet

SFM 1009 mono, 2009 stereo – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Polonaises (12) Sonatas;Suite; Fugue; March – Hermanns (Piano)

SFM 1010 mono, 2010 stereo – Mozart: Andantino in B flat for Cello and Piano Sonata in E for Cello and Piano, Bonifazio Sonata in C for Cello and Piano – Kaufman, Neikrup

 

[JSngry]

I like that they also made some records of, uh, contemporary music. Which now seems to be forgotten music!