Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Jazz

Jacques Loussier Dead? The Truth Revealed

Alive or dead?

Perhaps you heard something of Jacques Loussier’s death earlier in the week. Loussier’s demise was being lamented all across the internet, and obituaries began to sprout up from major media outlets. But is Loussier really dead?

Even as the wildfire of mourning continued to blaze across Facebook, conflicting reports began to circulate that Loussier’s “death” was in fact a hoax, and that the famed jazz pianist is, if not exactly kicking it, still drawing breath at the age of 84.

Loussier, who is widely celebrated for his jazz improvisations on music of Johann Sebastian Bach, suffered a stroke, which led to his retirement from performance in 2011.

His Wikipedia entry now sports a death date. His Facebook page has been frustratingly mum.

Forget Jacques Brel. Is Jacques Loussier indeed alive and well and living in Lyon?

Loussier performs Bach in Bach’s own church, the Thomaskirche Leipzig, for his 70th birthday:

March 9, 2019
Aaron Copland’s Jazz Concerto Birthday

He was America’s foremost composer of “art music.” What he was not was George Gershwin.

Join me this afternoon, as we celebrate the birthday of Aaron Copland with, among other things, his Piano Concerto, composed in 1926. Copland was still feeling his way toward his “populist period” (which began with “El Salón México,” not given its premiere until ten years later), when he wrote this concerto, which spikes 1920s modernism with American jazz.

The composer was the soloist in the work’s first performance, which featured the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. The critics panned it, but Copland’s mother beamed with pride. The composer wrote, “I was delighted when Ma said it was her proudest moment and that my playing in the Concerto made all those music lessons worthwhile!”

It retained its reputation as a shocker until 1947, when Leonard Bernstein revived it with Leo Smith as the soloist, and it struggles still, even next to Copland’s own Clarinet Concerto. In the meantime, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (from 1924) has never been out of the repertoire.

Hear this underexposed work today, between 4 and 7:00 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 14, 2016
Jazz Meets Classics on WPRB

Woody Herman plays Stravinsky. Benny Goodman plays Bartók. Wynton Marsalis plays Jolivet. Arturo Sandoval plays Arutiunian. Keith Jarrett plays Barber. Jazz artists perform the classics this morning on WPRB, with a few examples of “Third Stream” (Gunther Schuller’s term for a synthesis of classical and jazz) tossed in for good measure.

As an added bonus, Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, will stop by around 9:00 to talk about a special concert being held tonight at 8 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium. Violinist Daniel Rowland will appear as soloist and conductor in Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” which will be interleaved with the concertos of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” Rowland has performed the program many times and has even made a very fine recording of it (from which we will sample).

Otherwise, hepcats put on the dog this morning, as jazz artists perform the classics, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re having ourselves a classical clambake, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: (left to right) Béla Bartók, Joseph Szigeti and Benny Goodman

September 15, 2016
Jazz Meets Classical on WPRB

Do classical musicians sound too literal when playing jazz? Do jazz musicians sound stiff when interpreting classical? It is my hope that when you tune in tomorrow morning to WPRB you’ll put all such concerns aside. This will be no ordinary crossover program. Let’s face it; there are a lot of really awful crossover albums.

Rather, the playlist will be made up almost exclusively of straight classical music (with perhaps one or two examples of “Third Stream”), interpreted by the great jazz masters, including Paquito D’Rivera, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Arturo Sandoval.

We’ll also hear from genre-defying performers who kept at least one foot in jazz, such as Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, and Astor Piazzolla.

Speaking of Piazzolla, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra will present a special concert of “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” interleaved with Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium. The violinist and conductor will be Daniel Rowland, who has performed the program many times and has even made a very fine recording of it.

The PSO’s executive director, Marc Uys, will drop by the studio tomorrow morning around 9:00 to tell us about the journey of Piazzolla’s work from bandoneon to violin. He’ll also tell us about some of the other highlights of the PSO season.

The remainder of the show will be as described. The beatniks meet the longhairs, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be dixie fried and slated for crashville, daddy-o. Focus your audio, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 14, 2016
Radio Host’s Classical to Jazz Marathon on WRTI

How many radio hosts can do a “Wozzeck” warm-up show and then turn around and introduce an evening of jazz favorites? Well, this one will do his best.

Join me this afternoon — and this evening — on WRTI, as I fill in for Mark Pinto and Jeff Duperon. I’ll be on at noon with some music of Bach and Barber. Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” is coming up at 1:00, from the Lyric of Opera of Chicago. In between, it will be the opera preview.

New releases, hosted by yours truly, will follow at 3:00. Then it’s “Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection” with Kile Smith and Jack Moore at 5:00. The focus this week will be on music by American composer Edward MacDowell.

Jazz begins at 6. Somewhere along the way, I’ll grab some tea and a sandwich. Listen today, in Philadelphia at 90.1 FM. You’ll find a full list of frequencies at wrti.org.

June 4, 2016

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