NYC Symphonic Salute to Herb

[RichardWarner]

From Sunday's New York Times:

DON BYRON AND THE SYMPHONY SPACE ADVENTURERS ORCHESTRA As he has done in the last few years with his Symphony Space house band, Mr. Byron will remake two bodies of music that appear to have nothing to do with each other. Provocatively, one of them is usually selected as an affront to, ahem, "taste." This year it will be Herb Alpert and Earth, Wind and Fire, neither of which have a perch in Symphony Space's usual kind of high culture. But consider that Miles Davis worshiped Alpert's trumpet tone, and that most of today's best jazz performers — from 20-somethings to 40-somethings — grew up on a steady diet of E.W.F. Dec. 5. Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400.

 

[jimac51]

I'm not surprised. I've been following Don's recording career for the last ten years and found virtually every project he immersed himself into was an interest of mine. A noted starting place if you are not familiar with Don's great clarinet playing and arranging of unusual takes on familiar sounds-BUG MUSIC on Elektra. A reworking of Raymond Scott(basis for Carl Stalling's Warner Bros. cartoon scores),early Ellington and John Kirby,a guy who did swing band arrangements of classical music,a la Herb's take on the themes from the opera CARMEN. Not avante garde at all,he is a classically trained jazz musician with a love of a great melody. He has covered a couple of Mancini tunes over the years(and they weren't from "Peter Gunn"!) and pulled off an album length homage to Mickey Katz,best described as a Yiddish Spike Jones-Don's take on "Home On the Range",complete with spoken Yiddish intro and cowboy & western references,is both hilarious and dead-on perfect timing,complete with rubber chicken on the CD cover. As for a tribute to EWF-mmmmm good. Now that's funk for the masses! What a great idea! Mac

 

[Rudy]

EW&F also has a new CD out...unlike the last one, Maurice White returns to write, produce and sing, so it should be a good one.