Hammond organist Brian Ho, on the other hand, is just a rhythmic player who swings. He’s not as inventive as Jimmy Smith or Barbara Dennerlein , who are the two best jazz organists of my lifetime. Were his bandmates not on such an exalted level, it probably wouldn’t matter so much, but since they are, my verdict is that he is OK but nothing to write home about.
He does not play it safe; he jumps into the fire feet first, exploring extended chord positions and somehow landing on notes you’d never expect, giving one the thrill of hearing a master improviser in his element. At the beginning of the 20th century, art music was divided into “serious music” and “light music”. During the second half of the century, there was a large-scale trend in American culture toward blurring the boundaries between art and pop music.
- Then, he suddenly rallies for a fast ending, albeit one that sounds a bit more like a fit of panic than one of triumph.
- Both manage to maintain an aura of sadness even in the most chipper passages, which by this time was wholly appropriate.
- He’s so good at this that, at first, I re-read the album cover to make sure that there wasn’t a bassist in the group.
- YAM is a yoga studio, art gallery and music venue rolled into one cool space.
Popular and folk music is popular because it frequently has a strong, predictable beat, a catchy melody, or both. Frequently, listeners enjoy a piece of popular music because of its predictability. Even when having never heard the song before, after several verses often a listener can complete a portion of the melody and frequently sing the words because it shares the same musical language with other music in the genre. Music, art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony. Both the simple folk song and the complex electronic composition belong to the same activity, music.
As early as the 1930s, artists attempted to cultivate ideas of “symphonic jazz”, taking it away from its perceived vernacular and black American roots. Following these developments, histories of popular music tend to marginalize jazz, partly because the reformulation of jazz in the art discourse has been so successful that many would not consider it a form of popular music. Steve Drown, MECA&D’s new Assistant Professor of Music, in the newly launched Bob Crewe Program in Art and Music, has been an independent recording engineer for the last 21 years and a professional musician for nearly 30. He has a BM in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music and works as an engineer at The Studio, which provides state-of-the-art recording, digital editing and more in downtown Portland. Steve’s forte is making good musicians sound great—often in ways they don’t expect. He has worked with James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, Ronnie Earl, Roy Scheider, Patty Larkin, Kate Schrock, and Ron Carter, among other musicians.
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Russell’s book, which has inspired some and confused many, nonetheless led to his being championed by the late Gunther Schuller to head the jazz program at the New England Conservatory of Music. With Webern, Iman is more able to create his brand of “atonal lyricism,” at least in spots, and this is in line with the way Webern conducted his own music . The name of Gilbert Amy (b. 1936) was entirely new to me, but alas, the music was not. You can only do so much with it; it is not a device that frees composers, but on the contrary, locks them into a pattern that they must adhere to. As usual, Scopel is a master of both mood and articulation, bringing out the structure of these pieces without over-emphasizing anything yet still making every note, even in the inner voices, audible to the listener. With his truly genuine bel-canto voice, Celso Albelo is currently one of the most courted tenors on the international opera circuit.
I once knew a composer who very much liked performances of Mozart’s Symphonies that were unexciting but texturally clear because she enjoyed being able to hear the structure of the piece without interference from an individual interpretation, but I’m fussy. Boulez’ music, on the other hand, is even more severe than Schoenberg’s. With even the “melodic” line consisting of widely-spaced intervallic notes, there is very little room for lyricism, nor do I think the composer wanted any. Idil Biret, I think, has taken the best approach to his piano sonatas, playing them in a taut fashion which gives the music shape. Iman takes a different, more idiosyncratic approach, but despite his not being able to create a musical arch in this sonata, he still gives us various gradations of volume which enhance one’s listening experience.
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Zwilich’s well-known combination of tonal, melodic music with modes and modern harmonies tossed in for flavor are clearly on display here, but so too is Zuill Bailey’s cello. In fact, except for his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites, issued a few months ago, I can’t recall hearing any other recording by him that so perfectly captures his gorgeous, manicured tone. In fact, judging just by those two recordings, I would go out on a limb and say that his tone has actually grown in richness and depth of sound. He used to sound like Emanuel Feuermann; he now sounds like Mstislav Rostropovich.
The long but whimsical Ländler movement also has its surprises, again with accents and details normally glossed over. I also loved the swagger he gave to the music here; I’ve never heard this movement conducted as well. I also loved the way he did the “Rondo-Burleske,” almost making it an extension of the Ländler—but in the latter part of this movement, Rattle gets out of control. He makes up for it with a deeply-felt “Adagio,” however; this is as good as Solti’s performance. Although I get sick and tired of reviewing constantly-retreaded repertoire, I make exceptions for those few artists who are real interpreters and who have an affinity for certain composers of this kind of music. Simon Rattle is one such, particularly where Mahler or French impressionists are concerned.