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Crotchet

Got Swing! Erich Kunzel Cincinnati Pops Orchestra With Manhattan transfer John Pizzarelli Janis Siegal Telarc CD-80592

 

Recorded at Cincinnati Music Hall, April 19 & 20 2002

1. String of Pearls
2. Stompin’ At The Savoy
3. Choo Choo Ch’Boogie (Manhattan Transfer)
4. Straighten Up and Fly Right (John Pizzarelli)
5. Sugar (That Sugar Baby O Mine)
6. Skyliner (Manhattan Transfer)
7. Blues in the Night
8. Avalon (John Pizzarelli)
9. It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Don’t Have That Swing
10. Clouds, adapted from Nuages ( Manhattan Transfer)
11. Jumpin’ at the Woodside
12. Flying Home
13. I’ll Be Seeing You (Janis Siegal)
14. Sweet, Georgia Brown.

It is something to do with the training of classical musicians, that whenever you put some ‘jazzers’ in a classical orchestra, the musicianship is, as you would expect of the highest degree, but somehow it doesn’t swing no matter how good the soloists are. If you don’t believe this listen to the last track! This CD is no exception to that rule even Mantran’ with their own rhythm section can’t make it happen. John Pizzarelli fares quite a lot better, but that’s because he gets Nat Cole style, very light strings and a sympathetic rhythm section. John is a very pleasant singer and an excellent guitar player.

The best tracks are Straighten Up and Fly Right and Avalon from John Pizzarelli and Sugar and Skyliner from Mantran. There is also fine solo work from Rick Van Matre on tenor and clarinet, Antonio Hart on alto, Vincent Di Martino on trumpet and Jim Pugh on trombone throughout. It was nice to hear the verse from I’ll Be Seeing You from Janis Siegal, you don’t hear it sung very often. which is a pity because it is an important part of the song

As referred to earlier, it’s when the whole ensemble starts playing together that the classical/jazz divide starts to show. It may be also true from the other side, that the people who prefer classical music may prefer these performances to those of a jazz orchestra. Let’s be very clear that the standard of musical performance throughout is first class, but as ‘Fat’ Waller said, " If You Has To Ask What Swing Is, You Ain’t Got It"

 
Don Mather

 

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