Kicking off the New Year doesn’t need to be so demanding in terms of excitement concerning the music you play. As one gets older and more experienced with life’s up and downs, a pleasant peacefulness becomes more of the choice of music to play during the New Year celebrations. I feel that one should just sit back and think back on the “Old Year” listening to great relaxing Jazz music and because of this, I have chosen to kickoff the New Year of 2013 (At Midnight) here on Jazz Con Class with Miles Davis’ “Porgy and Bess.” Remember, I’m located in New York City, so it either will be a New Year already for you or I will be ahead of you, sorry but there are somethings we cannot control and time is one of them. This album will be featured for a few weeks or so, then placed in the G4 Playlist, check out the play times on the Schedule link. A N D ……HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU!!
About the Album:
Of all Gil Evans’ orchestral scores for soulmate Miles Davis, PORGY AND BESS is his richest and most ambitious–a watershed of modern jazz harmony which served to secure Davis’ pop star stature and define his brooding mystique. Inevitably, even non-jazz listeners own a copy of PORGY AND BESS or SKETCHES OF SPAIN.
Like MILES AHEAD, Evans’ band on PORGY AND BESS de-emphasized the traditional reed section in favor of a tuba, three French horns, two flutes and two saxophones. The resulting chords and overtones are dark, alluring and mysterious. Thus the opening brass-cymbal bluster of “The Buzzard Song” gives way to a mid-eastern carpet of flutes and deep brass as Davis’ poignant trumpet speaks in split tones and yearning cadences, bursting with blues feeling; a tuba soon picks up the theme as muted trumpets are followed by tolling trombone/French horn chords.
Each of the thirteen sections contrast lush instrumental details with intimate trumpet arias (which suggest the profound influence of Billie Holiday, particularly over the eerie textures of “I Loves You Porgy”). Evans’ ability to orchestrate hypnotic call and response patterns with Davis, and his ability to layer multiple textures……Learn More
One Response
Agreed, this and Sketches of Spain are two of my favourite albums. Amazing, how well Evans/Davis’ sound meshed.