It's all a-kickin' off in the Ball Claw Room!

[Serial_Apologist]

I'd be interested in your take. I was trying not to be too hard on Eddie Parker because he's obviously sincere about this and he's given it real thought. I just didn't think anything was added, in fact the reverse, and the most interesting bits were those away from Debussy.

I've now given this a listen, and have to say I'm pleasantly impressed. EP has managed to sidestep many of the problems I foresaw - in some instances by taking a suitable melody as a basis for conventional improvising upon - usually an early song - and in others extrapolating and then extending a particular passage in a manner analogous to Miles Davis's treatments in the 1960s but at the pre-compositional stage. The concert was paced so as to begin with fairly lightweight stuff, as mentioned by you, but the really interesting stuff followed the interval, with challenging numbers offering the kind of complexity I'd come to associate with Eddie Parker's arrangements for Loose Tubes. All flute players, including the classically-trained one, who was unused to not sticking to the dots, performed at a high standard. The session concluded with the middle section from "Sons et parfums tournent dans l'air du soir" from the Préludes, set in a way I'd always envisaged Barbara Thompson doing for Paraphernalia. At another point I was reminded of Stravinsky's worried remark to Stravinsky regarding the latter's strange little cantata of 1911, Le Roi des Etoiles, warning him that he was "getting dangerously close to the side of Schoenberg"!

It's still available on the link below, which I think I'll email to a French lady friend, a massive fan of Debussy's music, who lives up in Cheshire. She happens by the way to be the widow of the jazz pianist Dave Saul, who did some lovely broadcasts with Kenny Wheeler and Stan Sulzmann on Sounds of Jazz back in the day. I put some links to some utube of him on here at the time of his death, must be a couple of years ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00018bj

I might give this another listen before it disappears into the brouillards of time.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I've now given this a listen, and have to say I'm pleasantly impressed. EP has managed to sidestep many of the problems I foresaw - in some instances by taking a suitable melody as a basis for conventional improvising upon - usually an early song - and in others extrapolating and then extending a particular passage in a manner analogous to Miles Davis's treatments in the 1960s but at the pre-compositional stage. The concert was paced so as to begin with fairly lightweight stuff, as mentioned by you, but the really interesting stuff followed the interval, with challenging numbers offering the kind of complexity I'd come to associate with Eddie Parker's arrangements for Loose Tubes. All flute players, including the classically-trained one, who was unused to not sticking to the dots, performed at a high standard. The session concluded with the middle section from "Sons et parfums tournent dans l'air du soir" from the Préludes, set in a way I'd always envisaged Barbara Thompson doing for Paraphernalia. At another point I was reminded of Stravinsky's worried remark to Stravinsky regarding the latter's strange little cantata of 1911, Le Roi des Etoiles, warning him that he was "getting dangerously close to the side of Schoenberg"!

It's still available on the link below, which I think I'll email to a French lady friend, a massive fan of Debussy's music, who lives up in Cheshire. She happens by the way to be the widow of the jazz pianist Dave Saul, who did some lovely broadcasts with Kenny Wheeler and Stan Sulzmann on Sounds of Jazz back in the day. I put some links to some utube of him on here at the time of his death, must be a couple of years ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00018bj

I might give this another listen before it disappears into the brouillards of time.

Fair enough. As I said I respect the effort & the knowledge (obviously), but it didn't do a lot with me. I prefer my Debussy straight in a straight glass. Btw, I think you've got Stravinsky talking to Stravinsky in the above? Or was that intended.

BN.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Btw, there was a (to me) exceptional broadcast of Ravel's Concerto for Left Hand a week or so back. Taken slower and more emphatically than some I've heard but none the worse for that. It really is a remarkable piece of music even if there were arguments between Wittgenstein and Ravel about its structure and performance..."just play it sunshine, I do the writing"

Piano Concerto for the left-hand
Maurice Ravel : Joaquín Achúcarro & BBC Scottish ...
08:02pm, BBC R3 Wed 28 November 2018.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Fair enough. As I said I respect the effort & the knowledge (obviously), but it didn't do a lot with me. I prefer my Debussy straight in a straight glass. Btw, I think you've got Stravinsky talking to Stravinsky in the above? Or was that intended.

BN.

I actually meant Debussy'c remark to Stravinsky!