Miscellaneous Musings

[richardfinegold]

Saturday night CSO concert, which I mentioned in the KM thread, was a collaboration between the orchestra and the Jazz Orchestra of Lincoln Center featuring Wynton Marsalis. It took the form of your turn my turn. The CSO was led by Giancarlo Guerrero, who impressed me immensely.
First off was the CSO in John Adam’s The Chairman Dances. A little Adams goes a long way with me, and this was about 10 minutes to much. The JOLC followed with. Duke Ellington piece (title not in the program) that perfectly captured the late 1920s Harlem style with growling trumpets .
The two orchestras then took turns with 4 excerpts from Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet. Of interest 2 of the JOLC sax players sat in with the CSO. This was a lot of fun. IThe CSO sounded great .
The finale was a movement from Marsalis Third Symphony, titled All-American Pep, with Guerrero leading the combined forces. I wish that there had been time for the full work.
I enjoyed the Jazz contribution, but I was really impressed with Guerrero.
Tuesday we leave for the western part of Michigan and the Gilmore Piano Festival Biennial. We have tickets for Paul Lewis and Olga Kern. It’s also Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan

[french frank]

Glad you enjoyed rfg. It does sound like fun. I doubt I should have enjoyed it because, even if I liked all the pieces individually, I couldn't take them mixed up together. I think people can become accustomed to enjoying it and accepting that 'music is music' whatever the style. I detect sinister motivations here. If all music is just music how much easier it is to allow classical music to just disappear from the scene, Who cares? Lots more to enjoy.

[smittims]

There have been various attempts to fuse a jazz band and Symphony orchestra, such as Laurie Johnson's 'Synthesis ' and the Seiber/Dankworth 'Improvisations', and Gunther Schuller even tried to define it as 'third stream' but it never seems to catch on as a genre.

Does anyone remember the 'Halle Ball' , which was an annual event in Manchester?. It featured the Halle Orchestra in Viennese dances (I suppose Waltz and Polka) and 'The Tommy Whitefoot Band' in 'Modern Dancing '. I'm guessing that would be the foxtrot and cha-cha. I wonder if it was a black-tie event: regular Halle concerts then were of course white-tie and tails .

[Serial_Apologist]

There have been various attempts to fuse a jazz band and Symphony orchestra, such as Laurie Johnson's 'Synthesis ' and the Seiber/Dankworth 'Improvisations', and Gunther Schuller even tried to define it as 'third stream' but it never seems to catch on as a genre.

Schuller saw third stream as having been reached at a certain convergent evolutionary point between then-contemporary jazz and contemporary classical music having made for relatively compatible idiomatic amalgamation or at any rate cross-reference. Up to that time mutual incorporation of ideas and gestures from either side of the cultural part-ethnic divide had tacitly compromised or acknowledged inherent limitations. He somewhat demurred at the later appellation (usually as one word) being applied to trans-generic fusions between jazz and other music traditions, while figuring it as probably inevitable given a globalised diffusion of marketing counterparting the spread of jazz worldwide as "another way of making music".

Does anyone remember the 'Halle Ball' , which was an annual event in Manchester?. It featured the Halle Orchestra in Viennese dances (I suppose Waltz and Polka) and 'The Tommy Whitefoot Band' in 'Modern Dancing '. I'm guessing that would be the foxtrot and cha-cha. I wonder if it was a black-tie event: regular Halle concerts then were of course white-tie and tails .

NO!!!!!

[smittims]

I think Schuller might have expected that his term would be applied differently . Musical terms are notoriously fluid and resist definition: 'jazz' and 'classical' are but two examples. .