French chamber music performed by Dutton, Davis and Biggs,  in review.

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The Philharmonic Quintet of New York, in Durham, reviewed.

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The Jupiter String Quartet in Raleigh, reviewed.

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If Friedrich August Kummer is not a household word in your home, no reason for concern - he is one of the prolific Kleinmeistern of the post-Beethoven generation, a generation for which the cost of printing had dropped so much that it was financially possible for a composer to produce hundreds of published opuses. Friedrich August was a cellist, a student of Dotzauer; another member of the family was Kaspar (or Gaspar), a prolific composer for the flute.

The disc of selected duets from Friedrich August (items from op. 22, op. 103, and 0p. 156) recorded by cellists Phoebe Carrai and Tanya Tomkins, on period instruments, is simply lovely. The sound is rich and warm, without being strident, and the music is lyrical, romantic, while retaining some of the restraint of the classical era. Such attractive works for duo are rare (another example might be the Offenbach duos for the same combination), and the performances are top-notch (not surprising, given that Carrai played for years with Reinhard Goebel). Not just for string-players, but for all music-lovers.

 CD 15720

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Saxophonist Sonny Rollins (b. 1930) is one of the greats of American music, with a long and active career dating back to the fifties, when he worked with such luminaries as Max Roach, Clifford Brown and Thelonious Monk. Rollins took two well-known sabbaticals and recording, the second of coincided with the early passing of John Coltrane in 1967 (Rollins had recorded with Elvin Jones in 1966). The end of this retreat was marked by the issue of the Next Album in 1972, a lovely and lyrical recording that stands up to the decades. It is notable just exactly how much the late music of Coltrane, with its extremities of religious expression, and the contemporary music of Mile Davis, with its emphasis on finding the beauty in the ugliness of pop, rock and fusion, are not present. Rollins and his sidemen are mellow, the mood is laid-back from the very start, with warm tones from the leader’s tenor on the funky Playin’ in the Yard, and soprano on Poinciana, both with George Cables on Fender Rhodes, the sound of the early seventies. Delicious is the three-minute solo sax cadenza which closes the ballad Skylark, and the album.

Horn Culture, which followed in 1973, is a little closer to the funky sound of the era, opening with the conga of percussionist Mtume, who was part of Miles’ bands of the mid-seventies, on a modal vamp which also includes electric guitar in the brew. Tempos are up, and the emotional temperature is as well. Both albums are mixed in a way which softens a bit of the aggressiveness from the percussion, with the sax well forward.

If you don’t yet know the music of Sonny Rollins, these two discs are a good place to start.

Next Album CD 15622  Horn Culture CD 15621

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What can be said about Hermeto Pascoal? He is one of the great originals, not just in Brazil, but worldwide. From an American perspective his music may seem to belong to or draw on jazz (he worked with many jazz greats during his stay in the USA in the 1970’s, including Miles Davis) but it is more experimental, more wide-ranging, more inclusive. The Music Library has five LPs and one CD by this master. The volume Calendario do Som contains scores written, one each day, between Jan. 23, 1996 and Jan. 23, 1997, in the form of melody plus changes, reproducing Hermeto’s own manuscript.

M1366 P34 C35 2000

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Professor Salomea Gandelman of the University of Rio de Janeiro is the author of a very important guide to the Brazilian repertoire for piano (36 compositores brasileiros : obras para piano (1950-1988)), which identifies and describes works for piano, piano four hands and two pianos by 36 leading composers, with considerable detail, including duration and estimated technical level. A fundamental tool for any pianist planning a program including music from Brazil.

ML 128 P3 G33 1997

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ML160 .T18 2005  

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  Yudkin’s brief book (123 pages of text) is divided between 7o pages of prologue, and 50 pages of close analysis of the six compositions included on Miles Smiles, the second release by the classic quintet including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.  The book can’t quite seem to find a consistent tone, nor decide who its reader should be. The material in the prologue is too thin and commonplace for the reader who is already familiar with Davis and his work, and in contrast the close reading of Miles Smiles may be difficult to digest, even for those who know the album well. I am not convinced that the analysis adds new levels of understanding for the committed listener. Yudkin provides extensive transcription of the solos, and does provide some discussion of how this music differs from the other post-bop of the sixties, but even more discussion of the musical and especially the social context of this music would not have been amiss. For example, much is made of the originality of Tony Williams’ contributions at the drums, but it would be enlightening to know how much he owed to his study with master teacher Alan Dawson and the musical scene in Boston.

All in all, this project was worthy, but the execution seems to indicate that a few more years of gestation might not have been amiss.

 Jeremy Yudkin

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post-Bop

ML 419 D39 Y83 2008

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Ravi Shankar - dozens of recordings at the Duke Music Library

Duke music-lovers may be interested to know that our Music Library has a very substantial collection of recordings of the classical music of India, available on LP, CD and cassette. If you are a fan of sitar, sarod, and tabla, be sure to browse our holdings at the Library Service Center. You can limit your search to sound recordings at LSC. Use the subject keywords “Hindustani music” for North India, “Carnatic music” for South India.

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