Search Manic Mark's Blog

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Dynamite - Supersax

Gloomy Sunday
Dynamite!!
Supersax
P.A.U.S.A.
7082
MPS International

All arrangements except II/2 by Med Flory
Produced by Hans George Brunner-Schwer
Recorded 1978 - Published 1980

Supersax… and super tight. Enjoy the terrific cover of Gloomy Sunday!

From the back cover: Supersax plays "orchestrated Charlie Parker." That's how the group has become known all over the (jazz) world. This is their trade mark. Nevertheless, one of the more prominent American record companies wanted them to play Beatles songs with strings. Imagine, this was their condition to keep Supersax under contract! Med Flory and his musicians, of course, declined – which does not necessarily mean that they are not willing to expand their music. But they are expanding from musical, not commercial viewpoints.

The Fruit
Bamboo
Blues For Alice
Tempus Fugit
Parisian Thoroughfare
Gloomy Sunday
Wave
Dance Of The Road Dogs
Parker's Mood

Friday, November 28, 2014

New Music Ensemble - The San Francisco Conservatory

Moran: L'apres'-midi du Dracoula
New Music Ensemble
The San Francisco Conservatory
Wergo WER 60057
1971

From the back cover: Moran himself writes in connection with L'apres'-midi du Dracula: I first met the painter Robert Doxat in Vienna in 1963… I visited his flat in the 2nd District with friends. We walked up a stone stairway… while it rained outside. As I entered I knew that a magical event was talking place inside me. Robert showed me his wonderful drawings and pictures, scenes from the world of XamiXan. When I saw his drawing "The Afternoon of Dracula" I tried to reproduce the impression made by the drawing in musical terms.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Contemporary Music - Schuller Schwartz, Glazer

The Atlanta Virtuosi
Frank Glazer, Pianist

Gunther Schuller
On Light Wings
For violin, viola, violoncello and piano

Elliott Schwartz
Dream Music with Variations
For violin, viola, violoncello and piano

Orion ORS 86499
1984

Here's a sample from an obscure "contemporary" set featuring the above funky sample with a "B-movie-crime-drama" vibe from side 1 (Schuller).



Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Chamber Cantata On Chinese Poems

Chamber Cantata On Chinese Poems
Alan Hovhaness Koke No Niwa, Op. 181 "Moss Garden" 1960
Composed By, Conductor – Alan Hovhaness
English Horn – Melvin Kaplan
Harp – Ruth Negri
Percussion – Elden Bailey*, Walter Rosenberger

Ezra Sims Chamber Cantata On Chinese Poems 1954
Cello – Judith Davidoff
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Felix Viscuglia
Composed By – Ezra Sims
Conductor – Daniel PinkhamFlute – Elinor Preble
Harpsichord – Helen Keany
Tenor Vocals – Richard Conrad
Viola – William Hibbard

Lawrence Moss Four Scenes For Piano 1961
Composed By – Lawrence MossPiano – Seymour Fink

Lawrence Moss Sonata For Violin And PianoComposed By – Lawrence MossPiano – Yehudi WynerViolin – Matthew Raimondi

CRI SD 186

To my ears, here is the most entertaning piece from an obscure 1964 CRI contemporary music set.

From the back cover: The Chamber Cantata on Chinese Poems is a cycle of the year, beginning with New Year's Day (early Spring, in China) and continuing through to the end of Winter, with the first buds showing on the still snowy tree branches – which explains the somewhat anti-dramatic character of the music, this in line with the Chinese preoccupation with the youth-middle life-old age – and rebirth progression. The Cantata was to have been much larger, with a more rigorously patterned apportionment for the four tone-rows. Good sense won out of pretty planning, however.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Zeitgeist

Premonitions Of Christopher Columbus/Set Sail For The Sun
Zeitgeist
Bowers/DeMars/Stockhausen
Sound Environment Recording Corporation - Lincoln, Nebraska

This is a obscure album that I enjoyed. The musicians create, to my ear, a fluid "gamelan/fusion jazz" tonal journey on side one and the first half of side two, followed by an "old-school" avant grade piece, Stockhausen's Set Sail For The Sun, a track that plays "differently" comparatively speaking, but seems like just the right piece to finish to the set.

From the back cover: Zeitgeist was formed in April of 1977 to discover and realize in a musical language the concepts and perceptions of ourselves and our contemporaries. We work together to increase our vocabulary in order to express ideas in many varied forms.

James DeMars - piano
Joseph Holmqiist - marimba, cymbals, gongs and tam tam
Jay Johnson - vibes, piano (Stockhausen), cymbals, gongs, tabla and siren
Thomas Hubbard - electric bass
C Lee Humphries - piano (DeMars)
Homer Lambrecht - trombone
Patrick Moriarty - alto sax
Thomas Toscano - conductor (DeMars)

Pattern Study #2 - Stacey Bowers

Premonitions Of Christopher Columbus - James DeMar
Premiered by Zeitgeist at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in October of 1979.

Set Sail From The Sun - Karlheniz Stockhausen