JAZZ: Hot and Hybrid

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 917, 8 March 1957, Page 20

JAZZ: Hot and Hybrid

By

OWEN

JENSEN

ELL, maybe not so hot, The jazz boys seem to be a mixed-up bunch these days. Is it. that the possibilities of the basic rhythmic elements of jazz are about exhausted? Is it that jazz, at the moment, is out of coin in the way of original exponents of its patterns? No matter. The fact is that new directions don’t seem to get them very far, and those ensembles seem most comfortable who. play safe with classic turns of Dixie and the like. There’s a lot to be said for the ingenuousness of old-time jazz. One thing is that it’s cheerful and without inhibitions or complexes. That’s the way it is with the Merseysippi Jazz Band playing "West Coast Shout" and a few other tasty morsels from yesterday’s larder (Esquire 20-063). The rhythm runs along happily enough and there is some expert clarinet playing from one Don Lydiatt. Another of the ilk is Eric Silk and his Southern Jazz Band (Esquire 20-065). They give us warm versions of "Bobby Shaftoe," "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise," "Hiawatha," "Maryland, My Maryland," and so on, Both these bands are English. One can hardly expect them to have the genuine New Orleans touch, but conservative though they may be there’s still plenty of bounce in the playing. For music, however,' that steps right off the disc, there’s Moody Hi Fi, with James Moody and his band (Esquire

20-071)-fine rhapsodic sax work from Mr. Moody himself and some not uncomely swinging vocals from Eddie Jefferson. This style is quite a long march ahead of New Orleans, music that swings. Further along the road brings us to the New Directions Quartet (Esquire 20-043), with Teddy Charles (vibes), Bob Brookmeyer (trombone), Teddy Kotick (bass), and Ed Shaughnessy (drums). This quartet has tried to add something original to the repertoire of jazz and, in parts, pleasant enough it is, too; but their work is colourless beside that of the Modern Jazz Quartet (Esquire EP 109). This pocket-size "45," which contains~ "Concorde," "All of You," and "Ralph’s New Blues," really goes places with ideas that are bright with originality. But, after all, whether it’s a symphony, a sonata or a spot of swing, what lifts the music out of the ruck is something more than mere technique. Call it heart, soul, imagination or, if you like, personality; it is this that makes the music sing. It is both imagination and personality that has made Ella Fitzgerald a swing singer out of the groove. You can hear this in Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (Verve MGV 4001-2), where Cole Por-

The Concert Hall The performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98, by Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Mercury MG 50057) grows on one. At first hearing, the patches of flat-footed playing, particularly by sections of the wind, seem to stick out. But the final impression, after another run through, is one of quite considerable

rhythmic drive. Not as spacious an interpretation as Brahms’s music seems to ask for, but nevertheless not a performance to be dismissed lightly. Nor may the first reaction to a piano recital by Constance Keene (Mercury MG 10138) be an altogether enthusiastic one. Miss Keene opens her recital with Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G Major. She does not identify herself as closely with the Bach style as one would hope for. But when she embarks on Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C Minor

we hear the true measure of her play- | ing. Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Brahms is quite a tour-de-force, for Constance Keene’s technique not only copes easily with the virtuosity of the music, her imagination gives us the poetry which is something in this work that doesn’t come from ever: pianist. The Roth String Quartet’s Mozart Quartets No. 16 in E Flat, K.428, and. No. 17 in B Flat, K.458 (Mercury MG 10109), lack lustre, not the happiest of Mozart. For the Children Excerpts from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida is for children as well as adults, but more, perhaps, for children because this Shakespeare is presented by children. The boys of Sloane Grammar School, Chelsea, have been doing Shakespeare under their headmaster, Guy Boas, since 1930. Latterly, girls from a near-by school have come into the picture and one of them plays Cressida very assuredly in this production. This is a most remarkable recording, which should be enjoyed by boys and girls here-and studied with profit; to say nothing of what their seniors may get from it (Oriole MG 20008). A batch of discs from the Mercury | "Childcraft" series has nothing to do with Shakespeare. Some may object to the American accent, but if we share that objection it would not be for a performance for something more BBC, but a little homely New Zealand touch. However, I shouldn’t think the Americanisms are likely to have any permanently debilitating effect on the child mind or accent. Children we have tried the discs on find them fun. There is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Mercury CM 55), potted versions of The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Mercury CM 46), and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mercury CM 41), The Happy Prince (Mercury CM. 50), and Real Train Sounds (Mercury CM 57).