Gunther Schuller

[Teasing the Korean]

Yesterday, Alexa randomly played the beautiful Scott Joplin piece "Solace."  

I was introduced to Scott Joplin's music as a kid, via the film The Sting.  I saw the film with my family, and insisted on having the soundtrack album.

This was the first time that I encountered the name Gunther Schuller, who arranged some of the piano pieces for a small ensemble, for the film and album. I didn't really have any jazz albums then, though my father did; it would be another three years before I started buying jazz.  But Schuller's name would continually surface over decades, as a composer, arranger, player, and critic.  (I started a thread a few years back about Schuller's critique of Sonny Rollins's "Blue 7.")

When I lived in Beantown, I saw him at NEC in the mid-1990s.  He was conducting his transcriptions of early big band arrangements.  He had a funny anecdote about "I'm Beginning to See the Light." 

 

[Chuck Nessa]

I met him circa 1963, at the University of Iowa, when he spoke to our music appreciation class. Interesting fellow.

[jlhoots]

Excellent writer too IMHO.

[mikeweil]

Saw him conduct a local orchestra more than thirty years ago, interesting American composers pieces, Very sympathetic appearance.

[Rooster_Ties]

Saw him conduct the St. Louis Symphony 20+ yrs ago, on a program with his own flute concerto (which I don’t think had (or was?) ever recorded, fantastic as best I’m recalling) — along with 3-4 shorter Ives pieces that opened the concert, and I’m forgetting what was on the back half.

And my wife and I were in Boston on vacation a couple years later, and I happened to see a poster or maybe a listing in a free weekly newspaper? — for a chamber music ensemble that specialized in 20th century music exclusively. Gunther was in attendance and might have conducted the one longer piece of his they played.

In both cases, St. Louis and Boston, he gave a pre-concert lecture too, which we saw. And I had him autograph a couple CD’s in St. Louis, I’m pretty sure.

[Teasing the Korean]

Regarding "I'm Beginning to See the Light," Gunther said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the Harry James version was hip, and the Ellington version was square, and then he wondered if the two bands swapped arrangements! 

[JSngry]

The liner notes he wrote for Buster Smith's Atlantic side are unintentionally hilarious. That album is priceless just because of the music, so those notes are extra treasurous!