Word: pianos
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...Beethoven, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, solos by Chopin, Debussy and Liszt, duet performances with Jascha Heifetz and William Primrose--have been reissued as a nine-disk boxed set, allowing a new generation to be dazzled by his recreative genius. Best of all is a live broadcast of the Copland piano sonata that seethes with passion and force. Hear it and marvel at what might have been...
...wide, icy lyrics, Mitchell wrote incisive melodies and illuminated phrases that stuck in the mind like rare sunshine. The albums of this period, like Court and Spark or The Hissing of Summer Lawns, were exquisitely composed for midnight listening sessions with intimate friends. Reveling in Joni's sexy jazz piano chords and perfect words, one could spend hours with her tender truth that we are all "caught in the struggle for higher positions and the search for love that sticks around...
...What do we do with this thing called jazz?" It's generally agreed by now that George Gershwin, whose centennial is being celebrated this week, gave not one but two answers to this question better than anyone else--by taking jazz upmarket with his Rhapsody in Blue and Piano Concerto in F Major, and by weaving it back into folklore with Porgy and Bess...
...hints at the dark crosscurrents of obsession and desperation that made Tennessee Williams' play so naggingly memorable. This slow-moving Streetcar is tonal but tuneless, sometimes violent but never sexy. Even the bluesy bits are oddly polite--an unexpected letdown from a composer-conductor who plays first-rate jazz piano on the side. Let's face it, Williams' lush prose needs no music: it is its own opera...
...Guilty" is symptomatic of Morrissey's unsuccessful departure from his more rewarding roots. A Tori Amos wannabe crudely whales chord progressions in the background while Morrissey croons about "emotional air-raids" and the like. One can imagine Morrissey the ex-diva, a martini in his hand, reclining on the piano in a seedy bar, bemoaning his existence. Oh, Morrissey, you're brooding enough already--give us a beat to leave the ballads to the groomed women in the Top 40 who know what they are doing...