Results for "Gunther Schuller"

Gunther Schuller

The composer Gunther Schuller is, famously, a man of many musical pursuits. He began his professional life as a horn player in both the jazz and classical worlds, working as readily with Miles Davis and Gil Evans as with Toscanini; he was principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony from age sixteen and later of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra until 1959. In the 1950s he began a conducting career focusing largely on contemporary music, and thereafter conducted most of the major orchestras of the world in a wide range of works, including his own. He was central in precipitating a new stylistic marriage between progressive factions of jazz and classical, coining the term "Third Stream" and collaborating in the development of the style with John Lewis, the Modem Jazz Quartet, and others. An educator of extraordinary influence, he has been on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University; he was, for many years, head of contemporary music activities (succeeding Aaron Copland) as well as a director of the Tanglewood Music Center, and served as President of the New England Conservatory

My Early Years With Bill Evans, Part 3

By CHUCK ISRAELS

Bassist and composer, Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family. Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and The Weavers were visitors to his home and the appearance of Louis Armstrong's All Stars in a concert series produced by his parents in 1948 gave Chuck his first opportunity to meet and hear jazz musicians. Chuck studied the cello ...

My Early Years with Bill Evans, Part 2

By CHUCK ISRAELS

Bassist and composer Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family. He studied the cello and played guitar in junior high school. Later musical training took place at Indian Hill, a summer workshop in the arts directed by his parents, and at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. A year at Massachusetts ...

Drummer George Schuller Talks about Lee Konitz

By STEVE PROVIZER

George Schuller performed as percussionist with the recently deceased saxophonist Lee Konitz on and off since 1992. I covered one of their last jny: Boston concerts here. George has lived in Brooklyn since 1992 but is well-known in Boston. His father, Gunther Schuller, was a composer and musician of note and served as President of the ...

The Jazz Avant-Garde in the 1960s (1960 - 1966)

By RUSSELL PERRY

Nurtured in the seminal recordings of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor in the mid to late 1950s, the jazz avant—garde came into its own in the 1960s with their continuing creations, those of John Coltrane already featured in this program and those of next generation players, Joe Harriott and Albert Ayler. Defining statements of the free ...

Vintage Dolphy

By DUNCAN HEINING

Vintage Dolphy appeared originally in 1986/7 on both vinyl and CD. Featuring recordings from three separate live performances from Eric Dolphy, two at Carnegie Hall, both with his own quartet and in two 'third stream' settings devised by Gunther Schuller, the album provided intriguing insights into Dolphy's improvisational skills and approach. Were this not enough, the ...

The Very Singular Mr. Ran Blake

By DUNCAN HEINING

There have been few American composers and musicians, with the ability to encapsulate their country's music in all its racial and ethnic complexity. We might perhaps point to Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and perhaps, in their own distaff ways, Harry Partch and Steve Reich. In jazz, their number is fewer still--Duke Ellington and George ...

Darrell Katz: Rats Live on No Evil Star

By ANGELO LEONARDI

La bostoniana Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra è un ampio organico diretto da Darrell Katz e composto da musicisti legati a vario titolo con il New England Conservatory e il Berklee College of Music. Nei suoi trent'anni di attività ha pubblicato una decina di album caratterizzati dal coniugare entro forme compositive complesse e rigorose (con molti ...