Word: legato
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...superb technician, Jonah makes the weariest material sound fresh; he can float out a beautifully fluid legato with every note fully etched, or rasp out a low, "dirty" tone while keeping the melody under rigid control, or punch out a bright, high note and linger over it with a heavy vibrato. The arrangements are so simple that the customers, as Chicago Disk Jockey Marty Faye notes, "can sit at a table and chat and still enjoy Jonah...
Ferras' legato passages spun out in long, honeyed strands of sound; his attack in the cadenza was as crisp as vellum. Throughout, he displayed a sweeping, rhythmic flair, a fluent, coolly lustrous tone. His Brahms had about it a quality of molded passion that far older artists might envy...
...string section has become more solid, and the intonation continues to improve. The main faults are an over-weighty bass, and a tendency to lose intensity on the sustained notes. A less pronounced and biting attack on each note would have supplied a smoother legato, particularly in the opening Purcell Overture, which was otherwise very satisfactory in tone...
...voice is pure, rich and carries the haunting, dusky legato that still echoes the New Orleans of 40 years ago. It growls through the classic wails of Special Delivery Blues, Mighty Rumbling Blues, St. Louis Blues. In the upper register it is nothing more than a hoarse squeak; but down in the subterranean passages it flows, moans, glides and sighs with a power that has been achieved before-by Bessie Smith, Lizzy Miles-but that is still as rare as a 20-carat diamond...
Biggs concluded the 1956 series too, and the opinion I expressed in these pages at that time still stands. For Biggs has not mended his ways. Avoiding all long legato lines, he plays everything in a jerky, jabbing fashion. His approach would be better suited to chopping ice or dicing carrots. One of the great virtues of the organ is its ability to sustain a tone indefinitely without losing strength; yet Biggs is reluctant to make use of the advantage, and quits even the last not of a phrase almost the instant it sounds...