My intention was to create something new and arresting, an orchestra different from others on the scene – I wrote sixty arrangements to start with.
We rehearsed every afternoon, rain or shine. Perfect intonations in the sections and balance of the overall sound of the orchestra were emphasized.
With the exception of certain places in our arrangements, the orchestra played without vibrato. Vibrato was used to heighten expressiveness.
It seems to me that touch and tone are pretty much overlooked by pianists who are leading bands nowadays. You can get so many more and better musical effects if you pay attention to those little, shall I say, niceties.
– Claude Thornhill
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
Who are some pianists who have answered Thornhill’s plea to pay attention to “the little niceties”?
My nominees: Bill Evans, George Shearing, Andre Previn, Jimmy Rowles, Hampton Hawes, Teddy Wilson, Roland Hanna, Tommy Flanagan…
Talk about intonation, those brass chords that begin at the 58 second mark of “Snowfall” are something else. A peculiar thrill those voicings and that execution create, akin to Debussy’s “La Mer,” in that the orchestra doesn’t so much evoke the blur of falling show or (in “La Mer”) the surge of the waves as much as those natural events seem to invade and transform the orchestra.