Keyboard Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 15) from the forums HIP ME TO OSCAR PETERSON Moderated by Dave Bryce and Stephen Fortner INTRO RUMOUR INNUENDO & LIBEL weren’t quite ready for a Winter NAMM debut. My well-placed sources tell me that not one but two German software developers will unveil products that may well redefine certain aspects of the music making process. Add to that the possibility of a certain European hardware manufacturer delivering on a NAMM promise and you have all the makings of a delicious basket of delights. Go to www.keyboardmag.com and click on “Forum” to get in on the action. As always, registering is easy and free! “I’m ashamed to admit it, but I know nothing of the recently-departed Oscar Peterson,” writes forumite Dave Pierce. “If you could buy one and only one Oscar Peterson album/collection, what would it be?” For recommendations from the Keyboard community, read on; for the full thread, visit forums. musicplayer.com/ ubbthreads.php/ubb/ showflat/Number/186385 5/page/1#Post1863855. mojazz: Get Night Train. One of OP’s greatest and most influential recordings. Stroehmann Showman: Night Train is good, but I like Satch and Josh . . . Again more. (The first Satch and Josh isn’t so good). It’s Oscar Peterson and Count Basie playing dual pianos, with a bassist and drummer backing them up. OP is really good at comping, but on this recording, you get to hear CB doing the comping and OP really let loose. Linwood: I like the ones he did with Joe Pass. Recently I ordered his ’75 solo DVD, but it hasn’t hit the mailbox yet. Looking forward to it and, like the rest of the world, will miss him. misterdregs: I’ve always loved The Paris Concert and Exclusively For My Friends. Marino: I agree on Night Train and Paris Concert. I’d add Canadiana Suite where he plays his own compositions. David R: Another recommendation for Night Train here, as well as Live at the Stratford Festival. The Verve Jazz Masters compilation is good and is what I started with. The MPS albums, Exclusively For my Friends and My Favourite Instrument, are fantastic as well. Bobadohshe: There is a little known Oscar album from the ’70s that I think he did in Europe. It’s called Another Day, and he does some monstrously great playing on it. He does like three double time choruses over “All the Things You Are” in right-hand/left-hand octaves and it’s just so effortless and swinging. If you can get a hold of the live video of Oscar at Newport with Ray Brown, you’ll be in for some of the best Oscar around. And lastly I’ll say that you should stay away from the stuff Oscar recorded after ’95. It’s all worth a listen, but those recordings won’t put Oscar’s best foot forward for you, and he deserves to be heard at the height of his mastery. I’ll also give a small shout out to Side by Side, which was the first Oscar record that really got me into him. niacin: Late ’60s early ’70s I think he peaked. Check out the History of an Artist double CD. WINTER MUSIC CONFERENCE Then, the week after Easter, Miami’s Winter Music Conference (wmcon.com) will again be the annual event for electronica and club music revelers both here and abroad. After last year’s dramatic recovery from the early millennia doldrums, 2008’s event promises to be another — ahem — corker. Here are just a few of the questions facing ecstatic revelers this year: Will Deadmau5 continue his meteoric rise despite his propensity for bizarre headgear? Will Keyboard’s own Francis Preve deliver yet another magnificent mélange of tech house and electro at Gabriel & Dresden’s annual bash? What extraordinary online bauble is Beatport preparing to unveil? Most importantly, will Whole Foods run out of emergen-C packets and 5HTP before the conference ends? When March comes to a close, April may well seem a peculiar dénouement to that magnificent madness. Then again, there’s always April Fool’s day. . . . departures KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN (1928-2007) On December 5th 2007, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away at the age of 79. A pioneer of serialism and electronic music, Stockhausen leaves a legacy of over 350 works. He studied under Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud, and counted Edgard Varèse and Anton Webern among his influences. In 1956, Stockhausen recorded Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths), a song combining musique concrète (music that relies on sounds found in nature or surroundings) and electronic sounds that features voice, sine wave tones, and electronically generated pulses or clicks. Stockhausen composed the piece to be a work of total serialism, in which dynamics, timbre, and duration of sounds were serialized in addition to pitch. Gesang der Jünglinge is considered by many to be the first electronic masterpiece. Gesang der Jünglinge is also noted for is its use of spatiality (it was originally recorded for playback in five channels). Stockhausen continued to experiment with spatialization of music in Gruppen (Groups), a piece composed for three orchestras who are to be situated on the left, on the right, and in front of the audience in performance. Kontakte (Contacts), composed for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion, is a four-channel piece using a rotation table to swirl the sounds from speaker to speaker. In the ’60s, Stockhausen introduced live electronics in pieces such as Mixtur for orchestra and electronics and Mikrophonie II for choir, Hammond organ, and four ring modulators. Another noteworthy piece from this time period is Hymnen (Anthems), in which Stockhausen manipulates recordings of approximately 40 different national anthems; Hymnen in fact served as inspiration for the Beatles’ “Revolution No. 9.” Stockhausen spent his later years focusing on a Licht (Light), a cycle of seven cosmically themed operas. Stockhausen’s music has touched numerous artists, from Frank Zappa to Herbie Hancock to Bjork. Miles Davis was fascinated by Stockhausen, and his influence can be heard on the 1972 album On the Corner. Rachel Rossos Recommended Listening and Reading: Kontakte (Wergo Germany) Stimmung (Harmonia Mundi Fr.) Book: Stockhausen on Music by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Robin MacOnie (Marion Boyars) For more information on Karlheinz Stockhausen, visit www. stockhausen.org. For videos, search for “Stockhausen” on YouTube.com. 03-2008 keyboard Photo by Kurse Kürten 15 http://www.keyboardmag.com http://www.keyboardmag.com http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1863855/page/1#Post1863855 http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1863855/page/1#Post1863855 http://wmcon.com http://www.stockhausen.org http://www.stockhausen.org http://YouTube.com
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