Tír Na HiFi

On the TT:

Another of my LPs from 1973:



This is a lovely album. The performances are mainly from 1940 and include Jimmy Blanton's first recording with the orchestra from March 1940, Jack the Bear. There's also a rendition of Creole Love Call from 1927 featuring the voice of Adelaide Hall and Bubber Miley playing trumpet using a bathroom plunger and mute. Excerpts from Ellington's suite: Black, Brown and Beige: Tone Parallel to The American Negro occupy most of side 2, it is a deeply satisfying performance from 1944 a year after the premiere performance in Carnegie Hall by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra in January 1943.

My jazz collection now stands at three....

fergus wrote:My jazz collection now stands at three....

You are adventerous Fergus, I wonder if you will like the Peer Gynt and the Nutcracker, Suite Thursday is lovely: gorgeous writing for the saxophone section, enjoy. I'd love to know what you make of them.

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:My jazz collection now stands at three....

You are adventerous Fergus, I wonder if you will like the Peer Gynt and the Nutcracker, Suite Thursday is lovely: gorgeous writing for the saxophone section, enjoy. I'd love to know what you make of them.

Oh I enjoyed the CD very much Seán. It was an interesting take on both Tchaikovsky and Grieg....clever and interesting.

fergus wrote:

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:My jazz collection now stands at three....

You are adventerous Fergus, I wonder if you will like the Peer Gynt and the Nutcracker, Suite Thursday is lovely: gorgeous writing for the saxophone section, enjoy. I'd love to know what you make of them.

Oh I enjoyed the CD very much Seán. It was an interesting take on both Tchaikovsky and Grieg....clever and interesting.

I wasn't sure if you would like the Tchaikovsky and Grieg interpretations as I would consider you a real traditionalist at heart. For my part I love Duke's interpretation of the Nutcracker, it sparkles and shines with invention throughout. I do like the Grieg performances too it must be said.

The performance of Suite Thursday though suffers from poor sound recording and the absence of lead altoist, Johnny Hodges; Paul Horn cannot fill that gap, who could? The live performance of Suite Thursday on the later Paris Concert recordings is far superior to my mind. That set also includes a wonderful recording of Ellington's tone poem, Tone Parallel to Harlem too. Ah sure there are plenty of very fine Ellington recordings out there just waiting to be enjoyed.
I am glad you like what you have heard so far, enjoy.

This morning I did not listen to CD Review; and when my daughter went out into the garden -- to study for her LC exams -- I took the opportunity to play some Miles Davis throughout the house.

On the TT:


Ah, the lovely, long June holiday weekend heralds the arrival of summertime and now the living is easy:

Seán wrote: I wasn't sure if you would like the Tchaikovsky and Grieg interpretations as I would consider you a real traditionalist at heart. For my part I love Duke's interpretation of the Nutcracker, it sparkles and shines with invention throughout. I do like the Grieg performances too it must be said.

I can be Seán and a lot depends on the particular interpretation involved. The one big problem that I see with a lot of modern Classically trained musicians is that the ability to improvise on a melody or theme seems to be lost. How many of them are capable of playing their own cadenzas.....very, very few I expect. I compare this to the original Baroque and Classical composers/musicians who were expected to be able to do this and indeed many composers only wrote figures bass for the continuo section in the expection that that the musicians would be able to fill the gaps sensitively.
What has this got to do with Ellington and Jazz? Well to answer your comment above the credibility of an interpretation, particularly a cross over interpretation depends on a munber of things for me namely sensitivity, interpretation and musicianship. If those three things are up to standard then there is a high chance of success. I think that from what I have heard, in my humble opinion, Ellington was able to do that.

I did a comparison very recently between two Miles Davis albums which I was not going to post but I think that I will now because this very relevant point has been raised.

fergus wrote:I did a comparison very recently between two Miles Davis albums which I was not going to post but I think that I will now because this very relevant point has been raised.

Do please let us know your thoughts on the Miles Davis recordings, I would be very interested in reading your thoughts: good, bad or indifferent.

I know that I am no expert on Jazz; I fully acknowledge that. I also have heard very little of the playing of Miles Davis but I know of his pedigree. I was recently given a copy of this CD and it was not the first time that I had heard it. I know that this album comes with a very big reputation but I have to be brutally honest and admit that I just do not get it. I know that I am probably going to upset some people by posting this but this has to be one of the most unmusical albums that I have ever heard. I can hear the ability of Davis in patches throughout the album but overall I honestly think that the playing and the arrangements in particular are sub standard; I think that very little imagination went into this work for the most part. Track 5, “Solea” is the only one that I got anything out of. I actually dislike being negative and hesitated as to whether I should actually post this. However I thought that I would expose myself to the wrought of others in the hope that my ignorance, once exposed, can be deconstructed and perhaps others can point out some areas on the album that perhaps I have misconstrued. Herein possibly lies a thread for some Miles Davis fan! I will probably be banned from this thread as a result of this but there it is!!!