Jazzing the Classics

[Quarky]

I've got a number of L'arpeggiata discs and they are massively good fun. The only one which was a bit below par was the Montiverdi disc but I have heard the Purcell record and agree with Oddball that the critics were wrong with this one. They record a wide range of repertoire but I feel the more obscure stuff that Christina Pluhar unearths are absolutely fascinating. I saw them in concert in Salisbury about ten years ago and thought they were brilliant although wasn't enthused by the dancer who featured. After the gig all the musicians met up with the audience and were very obliging in explaining how the music and their instruments worked. Christina Pluhar was particularly pleasant and you came away with the impression that they have a real passion for this music. I have one disc of theirs with a DVD which includes a number of pieces one of which lumbers under some obscure name but which turns out to be Juan Tizol's "Caravan." I think Pluhar is someone who knows her jazz too.

By coincidence, L'Arpeggiata is performing at Wigmore hall tonight. But sold out.

[duncan]

Lots of cool suggestions above.

Eumir Deodato plays Richard Strauss as a Blaxploitation movie theme.

[duncan]

Mahler, Catholic or Jewish? Uri Caine takes the latter view.

[duncan]

Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and Eddie South do their thing. I like to think Bach would have approved.

[duncan]

Play it again guys.

[cloughie]

Lalo Schifrin Firebird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxmY6iZpSzo

[Padraig]

The John Kirby Sextet is worth a look.
Here's an example: The Bounce of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QinhBmJTJ5g

[Padraig]

.... and Art Tatum on Humoresque by Dvorak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcZGPLAnHA

[bluestateprommer]

Dick Hyman did two jazz-tweaked classical pieces tonight at Dizzy's Club (Coca-Cola) in NYC, his riffs on:
(a) Rachmaninoff's arrangement of Fritz Kreisler's Liebesleid
(b) Johnny Guarneri's Minute and a Half Waltz (JG's riff on Chopin's Minute Waltz, natch)