{"id":9132,"date":"2018-02-14T14:50:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T22:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9132"},"modified":"2018-02-14T14:53:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T22:53:12","slug":"thornhills-robbins-nest-a-rediscovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/02\/thornhills-robbins-nest-a-rediscovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Thornhill&#8217;s &#8220;Robbins&#8217; Nest,&#8221; A Rediscovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing to roam through Jeff Sultanof\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/02\/monday-recommendation-sultanof-on-big-bands.html\">book on big band jazz<\/a> I am appreciating, almost as if for the first time, pieces of music that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve listened to for years. For instance, Sultanof\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrative road map to Claude <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Claude-Thornhill-resize-1-500x391.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"179\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Claude-Thornhill-resize-1-500x391.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Claude-Thornhill-resize-1-500x391-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 179px) 100vw, 179px\" \/>Thornill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Robbins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Nest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d emphasizes the uncanny empathy of the band members and the genius (no other word for it) of arranger Gil Evans. (Thornhill is pictured right). The version Sultanof chose is a 1947 radio transcription available on <em>YouTube<\/em>. After a setup paragraph describing the instrumentation, the orchestration and a few solo moments, he writes this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What happens next is one of the most striking instances of melodic paraphrasing during the late big band era. The entire ensemble plays a harmonized improvisational line that sounds like one big instrument, perfectly balanced and relaxed. Again note the dynamic range from very soft to very loud (2:05).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is the entire recording.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZTGcA1N--6s\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Following the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Robbins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Nest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d analysis in his book, Sultanof takes on &#8221;\u00a0the Evans arrangement for Thornhill of Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yardbird Suite.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He includes observations on solos by Red Rodney, Lee Konitz and Barry Galbraith. The book really is\u00e2\u20ac\u201das billed\u00e2\u20ac\u201da listener\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s companion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing to roam through Jeff Sultanof\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new book on big band jazz I am appreciating, almost as if for the first time, pieces of music that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve listened to for years. For instance, Sultanof\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrative road map to Claude Thornill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Robbins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Nest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d emphasizes the uncanny empathy of the band members and the genius (no other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}