Day 57: Luiz Bonfa "The Composer of Black Orpheus Plays and Sings Bossa Nova" and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra Rachmaninov Symphic Dances and Stravinsky Jeu de Cartes

Every time I start to think I'm about done with this bag another pack of unprocessed CDs pop up. The themes are staying pretty consistent, though.

Luiz Bonfa
The Composer of Black Orpheus Plays and Sings Bossa Nova

Bossa Nova is somewhere between a successful date with The Continental and a dirty phone call. This might have a lot to do with the fact that I keep listening to this stuff on headphones, But it's that whisper singing that they do, it always gives me the impression that they're telling me something dirty.

I don't speak Portuguese, so maybe they are. Who knows. It is certainly one of the most mellow forms of music out there.

This is kind of a classic LP, I think. For some reason when I think of LPs it's always something like this, like 'so and so plays such and such.'

I know I know Black Orpheus but I can't think of it right now. This certainly provides a different feel to The Hurt Locker.

I'm starting to dread the bossa nova CDs because I didn't really have much to say about them in the first place and now I'm pretty much tapped out as far as insight goes. This recording bounces back and forth between the 'full orchestra' kind of stuff and the more simple percussion and guitar.

Of course I made the whisper sing comment, and the last track actually starts off with them really whispering "bossa nova cha cha" in my ear. Awesome.

This is a really short album, less than 40 minutes. This is the kind of thing where normally they would add bonus tracks to the original recording to fill things out, but not this time.

Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances Op. 45, Vocalise op 34 no 14 / Stravinsky Jeu De Cartes

This was an especially difficult type of classical CD to file. The Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra wasn't necessarily an in demand orchestra. But then it isn't a single composer CD, so how do I file it so that whoever might be looking for it would find it?

Sony Classical seemed to put preference towards Rachmaninov. But it's not like Stavinsky is a complete unknown.

Ultimately I erred towards the standard I had set. I had laid this out earlier, if it was a single composer it would be filed by composer, multiple composers under the performer. So the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra got a leader card.

I didn't get far enough to do a lot of studying of Russian composers. I know that Charlie Parker was obsessed with Stravinsky and piano players love Rachmaninov.

iTunes has an even harder time with classifying the CD since it attributed the whole CD to Rachmaninov, even the Stravinsky pieces.

This album contains a performance of Vocalise, which somewhere I also have performed on a theremin. Kind of awesome.

I'm as stuck with mainstream classical as I am with bossa nova, I don't really know what to say. I'm guilty of letting classical be background music, but really there's so much that goes on in music like this that it deserves more attention, not less. Somewhere we flipped it, classical became background music and we give attention to simpler, more repetitive music. I understand why that is, but it's still kind of backwards.

Day 52: Ernie Watts "Classical Moods" & Tamba 4 "We and the Sea"

Deck of cards day? I know...

I'm getting down to the last of this bag of CDs. So far the pattern has been that I'm impatient with the bag I'm working on and want desperately to move on to the next. Well, this is only the second bag, but more or less...

So let's get through this bag...

Ernie Watts
Classical Moods

Sometimes there are artists that I don't know if I'm familiar with them because they come up often or if I've heard of them a lot or if their CD just kept popping up when I was going through my CDs. Ernie Watts is one of those guys, because the name is very familiar but anytime I think of it it's just this album cover that I think of.

Watts, from the liner notes, is a studio/session player that would spend his nights playing in LA clubs. This is his chance, so he says in the liner notes, to play these classic jazz standards that he grew up with because during the sessions he's playing original works of the people he's working for.

There's a double edged sword with the whole 'session musician' thing. The good side is that generally you are a master of your instrument. You don't get into the studio unless you can bring it on the first take. It's one thing for the artist on the top bill wastes time, but the hired help can't miss a note. And so these players are on point before they even arrive. And of course if they're good, they get to do it a lot. And they develop their playing because they do it so often and with so many different ways.

The bad side of that is that you are 'for hire,' and that means all of you--your sound your style, everything. They never really get to cut loose, experiment that much--they serve the person they're recording for. Ideally Watts shakes off those cobwebs in the aforementioned clubs, but I think it doesn't really turn on and off.

And so Watts playing on this album is that of a master saxophonist playing extraordinarily well, but all within the lines. These are exemplary samples of jazz standards that are played well. I don't want to add a 'but', not every player has to be wild, unconventional. There should be room for the craft. And in that room would sit Watts. I would take lessons from him just to be that clean all over the sax' range.

At some point I think I was really into Mugrew Miller, the piano player on this album, but I don't really remember the context. I think he played with someone I really liked or something. Google isn't helping me remember.

Tamba 4
We and the Sea

I might be able to momentarily escape Blue Note, but I can't escape Rudy van Gelder. I was perusing the liner notes hoping for something more intelligent to say other than "Nope, don't know who these guys are" or at the very least have some good old fashion fun with the liner notes when I see the 'Recorded by' credit. Gelder. He's everywhere.

So, yeah. Don't know a thing about this CD, wouldn't have given it a second glance in the store. It's the first group to have recorded Girl From Ipanema.

The first track was a completely awesome first track because it started out as a progressive jazz number that built and built and then, four minutes in, broke down as the bossa nova rhythm started to come in. What a great way to start their first American recording. By the second track that softly sung Portuguese is in place to let me know it's Brazilian music.

This is a tragically short CD, just over thirty minutes. Good timing though, because I'm kind of tired. But I've had a long run of straight jazz and some pretentious jazz, so this is a nice change up.