Tomasz Stanko
Who is he? Michael Connelly mentions him in his novel Nine Dragons
Tomasz Stańko was a Polish trumpeter who sounded like the ghost of Miles Davis.
Godowsky Chopin Etudes
Where has this man been all my life?
A mostly new find for me. And I’m lovin’ it. I say “partial” because I have, in fact, played a Godowsky arrangement: his arrangement of Sinding’s Rustle of Spring. It was one of my grandmother’s favorites and mine, too. Fun to play.
But these Chopin Etudes by Leopold Godowsky are off the hook. Grab the 2-CD set from the library and prepare to be knocked out of your socks. I’ve got them performed by Marc-André Hamelin.
Godowsky has two arrangements of etude Op. 10, No. 1. The first is in C major - no worries if played a modest (♩ = 80). He’s marked it 144-176.
The second is in D-flat, for the left hand alone.
Eek!
I second the liner notes: this recording should be listened to in small doses. It’s really beautiful, but overwhelming.
PS: For the patriotic among us Godowsky graced us with his version of the Star Spangled Banner. But the prize has got to go to these Chopin Etudes. What a workout!
Ella rediscovered
[Yale Joel/Life Magazine/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images]
A new discovery. And not bootlegs. Verve has just release a four CD set entitled “Twelve Nights in Hollywood
Real recordings never before released. As Fred Kaplan remarks in this NY Times review, “[t]here’s nothing rare about a joyous Ella Fitzgerald recording; the woman exuded joy in nearly every note she sang. Yet the level on these sessions soared higher and plumbed deeper.”
Gary Giddins, the veteran critic and author of “Jazz,” agrees. “This ranks on the top shelf of her live recordings,” he said. “It’s about as good as it gets.”
Why these tapes stayed locked in the vault for nearly half a century — and what it took to set them free — is a tale of a producer’s neglect, a jazz sleuth’s obsession and a string of happy coincidences.
One more for my Christmas list.
Take a listen to some clips from the website.
A return to the big band
Bringing back the Big Band era one lead sheet at a time! This looks like great fun. I often say I was born in the wrong era. I would have loved to have been a young adult in this era, 1920-1940’s. (Yes, I know. It’s a romantic version of that era that I love. Actually living in that period probably wouldn’t have been much fun.) Hats off to Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. Take a look at a video here.
Listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Oliveto has a much more mature attitude than I do. Yes, it is an amazing choir, but I just can’t bring myself to listen to it. At least I’m as consistent as I know how to be. I wish there was a Snopes.com for music and musicians. I won’t even tiptoe into the Wagner quicksand (Listen to it or not? Perform it or not?). I remember when I read that von Karajan was a Nazi sympathizer. At the time the pain was double: there was the Nazi part and there was my self-imposed abstaining from listening to any of his recordings again. Do I miss listening to him? You bet.
You’re more than welcome to try to talk me down from this position. Best of luck.
Lou Harrison and the Muse
I discovered this delightful site a few weeks ago. I’ve yet to plumb all the archives, but I’m sure they’re filled with tasty treats such as this one. I was at San Jose State University when Lou Harrison was there. I’ll never forget the advice he gave me after he examined my composition for my first Composition Jury (probably 1977): “Never miss your appointment with the Muse.”
I was puzzled for years (sorry, I was more than a bit slow in those days!) as to what Harrison meant. Only later, much, much later, when my “pen” had fallen silent for a decade or so, did I understand what he meant. When I was a student at SJSU, I thought he meant that I was to meet the Muse every day. Well, this only happens in our dreams. Of course it was an impossibility. It seemed a task to tall for a mere earthling to accomplish.
But that’s not what he meant. “Never miss your appointment with the Muse.” All I had to do was show up! Whether the Muse arrived was another thing altogether.
Later, when I was at San Francisco State University, Harrison was honored one evening. I hadn’t seen him in about 20+ years. I waited and waited to greet him. Finally, I got my chance. I shook his hand and mentioned out connection. And then I thanked him for giving me the best piece of advice I was foolish to never keep.
Armstrong and the Jewish connection
This article, “Satchmo and the Jews”, by Terry Teachout, is well worth reading. I’d known about Satchmo’s “univeralism”, if I can put it that way. So his close friendships across racial and religious lines is nothing new. What’s new is the back story and the details that Teachout fills in for us. Add some more to the “To Read” list: Teachout’s biography of Armstrong (Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
Armstrong wrote his memoir of the Karnofskys around the time that black anti-Semitism, which had showed signs of subsiding in the early years of the civil-rights movement, underwent a recrudescence that was fueled by the anti-Semitic statements of such black leaders as Malcolm X. Few prominent blacks were willing to speak out in praise of Jews in 1969. Yet Armstrong actually wanted to publish “Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family,” in which he explicitly attributed black anti-Semitism to envy of the superior achievements of the Jews: “The Negroes always hated the Jewish people who never harmed anybody, but they stuck together. And by doing that, they had to have success.”
Brendel the brainiac
Poor, one-dimensional me. Who knew? Great pianist, sure. But now I’ve got to track down Alfred Brendel’s essays and poetry. Too intriguing to let this slip by.
This from the Times Online October, 2009:
To describe Brendel as an intellectual is rather like describing Leonardo da Vinci as a good all-rounder. Honoured last week with the award of one of the world’s top cultural prizes, the Praemium Imperiale, he is a man who needs cerebral pursuits like a fish needs water. He’s best known, of course, as one of the finest pianists of our times. But many would say that the only positive aspect of his decision to retire from performing last December, at the age of 78, is that he has more time to write his wry and provocative essays, lectures and poems.
Jay-Z and Foreign Policy?
I’m reading it, but I’m not believing it. An article on the rapper Jay-Z appeared Foreign Policy online mag: Jay-Z vs the Game: Lessons for the American Primacy Debate.
Randall Thompson’s Choose Something Like a Star, from his “Frostiana”. Not the best performance, but a nice You Tube clip nonetheless. My favorite Robert Frost poem.
