From: davidbattis@aol.com
To: ferran.esteve@acett.org
CC: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: [F_minor] Gould and jazz
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 11:58:12 -0400
According to Bazzana's biography, Wondrous Strange,
"He took a stab at enjoying Charlie Parker and other bebop performers in
his teens, 'but it was a very passing fancy'; despite occasional praise
for, say, Lennie Tristano or Bill Evans, he admitted that jazz appealed to
him only in 'very small doses.' He pompously dismissed jazz as 'a minor and
transitory offshoot of the romantic movement' - and besides, he said, 'no
one ever swung more than Bach.'
...Gould and Evans were mutual admirers and friends. (Gould called Evans
'the Sciabin of jazz.') In the early sixties, the Canadian jazz musician
and writer Gene Lees suggested that the two pianists review each other's
recordings in High Fidelity, and they agreed, though in the end Evans
backed out. Lees introduced them (by telephone) around 1970, and they spoke
often after that. According to Evans biographer, Peter Pettinger, Evans
recorded Conversations with Myself, in 1963, on Gould's own Steinway."
[Also, it was apparently Evans who first recommended to Gould the Yamaha
piano.]
Hope this sheds some light on the thread!
David G. Battis
davidbattis@aol.com
-----Original Message-----
From: ferran.esteve@acett.org
Cc: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Sent: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 7:14 AM
Subject: Re: [F_minor] Gould and jazz
Dear Colin,
he does some remarks in one of the interviews with JOnathan Cott. about
Lenie Tristano if I'm not wrong.
Colin Smithers escribió:
> Dear All,
>
> I'm very interested to learn about Glenn Gould's views on jazz, and, >
in particular, on the jazz pianists contemporaneous with himself. I > would
imagine (and seem in fact to recall reading somewhere) that he > was not
especially keen on the whole genre, perhaps because of the > improvisatory
qualities normally inherent therein. Those qualities > would seem to go
quite against his often rather rigorous > (conservative?) stance towards
musical structure and argument, his > evincing a particular disregard
towards the ornamental digressions and > frivolities of such a composer as
Chopin, for instance, who's own > often 'improvisatory' style he perhaps
felt detracted from far more > important musical considerations such as
long-range tonal tensions, > thematic development, and counterpoint, of
course. And those are > aspects of music which are not associated with
jazz, necessarily!
>
> But, on the other hand, perhaps the single most characteristic thing >
about fugues, say (which Gould felt, I think, in Bach's hands at > least,
to contain the most exciting possibilities for musical argument > of any
form), is surely their distinctive improvisatory quality! More >
accurately, the variegated ways in which they could take just one > single
idea (in most cases), and expose it to a myriad of different > contexts
without, crucially, any true structural underpinnings (as > opposed to the
treatment of themes in sonata form, for instance). And > therein lies the
paradox, it seems, where Gould is concerned. I just > wonder whether he
felt that the improvisatory qualities found in > fugues, for instance, and
that found in jazz, was really all that > different in certain important
respects. And if so, how? I use that as > a rather specific example, but I
would love to hear people's views on > and insights into Gould's feelings
generally towards jazz.
>
> Best wishes to all,
>
> Colin Smithers
>
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