Hi Marc, Mundy told me that same story of meeting Bill Evans and inviting him to call if/when he got to New York. He added that Bill called about a year later with some trio gigs. WhenMundell asked if he had a bassist in mind Bill said, "Yes, there's a new guy out in Jersey named Red Mitchell." Mundy continued that they worked some joints where the stage was surrounded by chicken wire, and the promoter ran off with all the money, but they remained lifelong friends.
What can I say? Another great post about a project I'd never heard of before. The name Gunther Schuller is familiar to me but I have nothing from him in my collection. So I just ordered "Modern Jazz Concert" as second-hand Japan CD released in 1988.
"All About Rosie" is wonderful. That's why I ordered the CD. Another piece for my growing Bill Evans collection.
Thanks Marc, for sharing the wonderful thoughts from Chuck Israels with us.
This whole project reminds me of a similar project that took place in Berlin, Germany in 1961. Werner Mueller was conductor of the RIAS dance orchestra at that time a Radio orchestra. But they also played jazz.
Thanks for introducing me to the Jazz Mutations album. Other than the one twelve-tone POS, it has some wonderful music by Robert Farnon, Francy Boland, Brandt and others.
The only Gunther Schuller I'd recommend is an album called "Jazz Abstractions", that features such artists as Bill Evans, the great Eddie Costa, Eric Dolphy, and Jim Hal,l with Scott La Faro and Sticks Evans. on bass and drums.Other than his few Third Stream records, Schuller is known as America's leading twelve-tone composers, so unless you like Schoenberg, I'd avoid his concert works.
It took me many years to discover this album even though I’m sure I heard it on our local PBS station WGBH while listening to their jazz shows for 50 years.. now essentially a talk show station..both Schuyler and Russell were locally based and often played locally..thanks for the blog and reminder Marc..
Chuck Isreals has George Russell's "Allabout Rosie" confused with another great Russell piece that he wrote for Bill Evans called "Concerto For Billy the Kid", which you can find on his great "Jazz Workshop" album. That's another extended piece of music where Bill Evans plays a breathtaking stop chorus solo on the changes to "I'll Remember April".
I took out the score from Columbia Ubiverity'
s library, and Russell thought so highly of Evan's solo on 'AAR', that he transcribed it and included it in the score itself. Evans was inprovising on a chord progression in G minor that Russell wrote.
At the Brandeis concert, the band played a piece by Milton Babbitt called "All Set" which was a very difficult twelve-tone piece that Evans sightread on the spot! Not only did he get the notes right, he even was able to play the correct dynamics and articulations!! The rest of the band struglled with the piece for hours until it was finally ready to be perdormed.
Schuller invited Evans to his home in Greenwich Village, where they'd play four handed arrangements of Wagner. This continued until Evans' addiction took over his life, and the last time he heard from Evans was a phone call to borrow twenty bucks for a fix.
Hi Marc, Mundy told me that same story of meeting Bill Evans and inviting him to call if/when he got to New York. He added that Bill called about a year later with some trio gigs. WhenMundell asked if he had a bassist in mind Bill said, "Yes, there's a new guy out in Jersey named Red Mitchell." Mundy continued that they worked some joints where the stage was surrounded by chicken wire, and the promoter ran off with all the money, but they remained lifelong friends.
What can I say? Another great post about a project I'd never heard of before. The name Gunther Schuller is familiar to me but I have nothing from him in my collection. So I just ordered "Modern Jazz Concert" as second-hand Japan CD released in 1988.
"All About Rosie" is wonderful. That's why I ordered the CD. Another piece for my growing Bill Evans collection.
Thanks Marc, for sharing the wonderful thoughts from Chuck Israels with us.
This whole project reminds me of a similar project that took place in Berlin, Germany in 1961. Werner Mueller was conductor of the RIAS dance orchestra at that time a Radio orchestra. But they also played jazz.
Here some more information about this project:
http://www.sonorama.de/index.php?section=WERNER_MUELLER_ORCHESTRA_Jazz_Mutations
Here one of the songs from that record called "Blues Variationen":
https://youtu.be/Q9G82i0DCR8?si=VZVwkxlLzjumk382
Thanks for introducing me to the Jazz Mutations album. Other than the one twelve-tone POS, it has some wonderful music by Robert Farnon, Francy Boland, Brandt and others.
The only Gunther Schuller I'd recommend is an album called "Jazz Abstractions", that features such artists as Bill Evans, the great Eddie Costa, Eric Dolphy, and Jim Hal,l with Scott La Faro and Sticks Evans. on bass and drums.Other than his few Third Stream records, Schuller is known as America's leading twelve-tone composers, so unless you like Schoenberg, I'd avoid his concert works.
It took me many years to discover this album even though I’m sure I heard it on our local PBS station WGBH while listening to their jazz shows for 50 years.. now essentially a talk show station..both Schuyler and Russell were locally based and often played locally..thanks for the blog and reminder Marc..
Chuck Isreals has George Russell's "Allabout Rosie" confused with another great Russell piece that he wrote for Bill Evans called "Concerto For Billy the Kid", which you can find on his great "Jazz Workshop" album. That's another extended piece of music where Bill Evans plays a breathtaking stop chorus solo on the changes to "I'll Remember April".
I took out the score from Columbia Ubiverity'
s library, and Russell thought so highly of Evan's solo on 'AAR', that he transcribed it and included it in the score itself. Evans was inprovising on a chord progression in G minor that Russell wrote.
At the Brandeis concert, the band played a piece by Milton Babbitt called "All Set" which was a very difficult twelve-tone piece that Evans sightread on the spot! Not only did he get the notes right, he even was able to play the correct dynamics and articulations!! The rest of the band struglled with the piece for hours until it was finally ready to be perdormed.
Schuller invited Evans to his home in Greenwich Village, where they'd play four handed arrangements of Wagner. This continued until Evans' addiction took over his life, and the last time he heard from Evans was a phone call to borrow twenty bucks for a fix.