Points on Jazz
Points on Jazz is, as the title might suggest, the suite that is closest to Brubeck's jazz world. All of the compositions Salmon plays have a folksy charm in the tradition of Gershwin and Copland. They frequently, as in "Dad Plays the Harmonica," have something of the rhythmic ingenuity that Brubeck is famous for. Still, this disc adds to our knowledge of Brubeck's musical personality. There's an unadorned wistfulness in many of these pieces that I rarely hear in the jazz Brubeck, or in the early octets and other chamber "jazz" that he wrote under the combined influence of Milhaud and of postwar modern jazz. "A la Turk" sounds like a preliminary version of what in the quartet recordings has always been called Blue Rondo à la Turk. It begins with a furious rhythmic pattern jazz fans will recognize immediately. But the melody is subtly different: it sounds to my ears Spanish, and whereas the jazz piece leads to an obviously funky blues section, this version leads to a swirling left-hand pattern and a gently nostalgic restatement of the theme. I've never heard in Brubeck's live performances anything like the elaborate humor of They All Sang Yankee Doodle, with its Ivesian quotations of folk material. All of this music is appealing, and it is well played by John Salmon, who seems as home with the jazzy Brubeck moments as with the Ivesian. I'd recommend this disc to anyone who likes, say, Ives's symphonies, Gershwin's Preludes, or Copland's ballets.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário