MulesRasch

Dexter Gordon

If you love Dexter Gordon, then you need to go get an earful of the great Dex at the Freedom Jazz Dance site. Host Ken Hohman presents 2 hours of Dexter Gordon which you can stream off his site. 

One of my favorite players, there's always a hint of sensuousness in his big tone. A true master.

Nice way to celebrate Gordon's birthday, which happens tomorrow. He would have been 85.

You can also see Gordon on this youtube clip, playing soprano sax.

Just learned that Teo Macero (1925-2008) has died in Riverhead, NY. He was 82. 

After graduating from the Juilliard school in 1953, Macero became a member of the Charles Mingus's Jazz Composers Workshop, recording with Mingus between 1953-55 playing tenor and baritone saxophones. With Mingus, Teddy Charles, and Gunther Schuller, he became interested in what would become known as the third stream, ie. combining elements of classical music and jazz. He wrote several atonal classical works that showed his jazz influence.

He is an Emmy Award winning film and television composer and was instrumental in developing Miles Davis fusion movement.

Ben Ratliff of the New York Times writes: 

"Helping to build Miles Davis albums like “Bitches Brew,” “In a Silent Way” and “Get Up With It,” Mr. Macero (pronounced TEE-oh mah-SEH-roh) used techniques partly inspired by composers like Edgard Varèse, who had been using tape-editing and electronic effects to help shape the music. Such techniques were then new to jazz and have largely remained separate from it since. But the electric-jazz albums he helped Davis create — especially “Bitches Brew,” which remains one of the best-selling albums by a jazz artist — have deeper echoes in almost 40 years of experimental pop, like work by Can, Brian Eno and Radiohead.

Leon Stein's Quintet for Saxophone and String Quartet was premiered on this date in 1958, 50 years ago. Stein (1910-2002) was a Chicago native who composed in a strongly influenced by Hindemith style. He was commissioned for several saxophone pieces by Cecil Leeson and Brian Minor. 

A few recordings of the Quintet exists. Among the older discs, there was "Brian Minor Plays Saxophone with the Chicago Symphony String Quartet" on Crystal Records (S 151) and "Cecil Leeson and the Lyric Arts String Quartet" on Enchanté Records (ENS-2001).

A more recent recording is by Martin Piecuch:  "Sax With Strings Attached" on Boston Records, performed with the Stravinsky Quartet and includes Alphonse Stalleart's Quintet for Saxophone and Strings, and Gerhard Maasz's Divertimento for Sopranino Saxophone and String Quartet. 

You can hear a few excerpts of this recording by visiting Martin Piecuch's web site. To hear the first movement of the Stein Quintet, go here.