Re: [F_minor] Gould and jazz

[davidbattis@aol.com]

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 escribiÃ: 
> 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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