Johnny Williams - An Isolated Pawn

Piano flutes sumptuous
sonorities ~ Checkmate soundtrack ~ from early in John Williams story Oct 1960 age twenty eight surrounded by complement of West Coasters jazz chops and signature Williams brass punctuations in evidence ~ a time when West Coast signified everything hip in swinging jazz but alas for some spiritually demanding souls a superficial slice of jazz at the time~However the TV series Checkmate is an excellent collection The Williams story comes in chapters over a long career unlike minimalist John Adams whose delightful and colourful Chairman Dances is still amongst his best~ Williams here evinces impressionist jazz sensibility then some. The aerial lyricism of ET a treat ~ Star Wars Jaws celebrated and iconic As classical music in mid 20th became an idealogue's inimical free for all~ propped by a take it or leave intellectual diktat If you didnt get it it was your problem not the composer's a nice twist on humility. Leonard Bernstein John Williams Michel Legrand lalo Schifrin Andre Previn many more schooled in the orchestra ~ kept their popular roots in place and with latterday vindication rightly so In mitigation the experimentation was done as like Mount Everest because it was there. This is not a sad classical music story Avant garde jazz also got snarled in the process. I loved careering John Coltrane in 1960s in hindsight now that 1960s frenzy out of our system excepting an occasional visit~ I prefer the master's amenable 1950s stuff with Miles Davis even if the matter of lissome swing is moot but its generally a hoot How about this heterodoxy ~ John Coltranes ~ overt 1950s passion preferred to the linear cool of the great Miles. Ifcopod perhaps its time for a psychological psychiatric rebooting
overhaul?. Why your need for music of such emotional extremes ?
Beforehand would you you mind awfully Brit style ~if Ifcopod consults ~ Jan Hammer Seventh Day video to ascertain whether Molly Malone is still wheeling her wheelbarrow. through Dublins etc . A confession the only Molly Malone acceptable to Ifcopod ears ~versIon by four Hi Los even so an indulgent listen. Contrariwise Hilos Camptown Races a classic virtuosic listen as Clarks Burroughs carols over the orchestra~ the end a hoot ~ so spot on riotous. Strange how some songs become classics Molly Maloney for one~ Aeee dont believe it BBCs Victor Meldrew was apt to exclaim ~this now is Ifcopod. speaking Some inglorious gobshite has cut off the best part of HiLos Camptown Races ~ the ending as Clark Burroughs and the gang go for broke~.Is nothing sacred ? Have the philistines flipped their lid?
Immersed in my duties as official annotator on Ifcopod channel suddenly i espy Burt Bacharach's Promises Promises. of fond 1960s memory warranting respectful obeisance for a treasureable song. To be able to conjure such musical sounds is worth all the tea in China Is there still tea in China? Perhaps more ad rem has Ifcopod still a job as prosaic wordsman on this hallowed channel? A favourite song from past 50 years (just about fifty) is John Williams Make Me Rainbows when Johnny's proclivity for swing was the darndest brassy thing. perhaps more colour than Stan Kentons stern five trombones but both just about my favourite take on Jazz. which reminds me I had a Capitol single of Kenton putting his immense forces through
David Amram's main theme from movie Splendour in the Grass.back yonder. Amram had a number of high profile( music wise) early 1960s movies to his credit Chuck Sagle did an album with the HiLos on Folk also cashed in with a Splendour in the Brass .album
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Watching a Strauss Metamorphosen on U Tube Even if the performance moves with alacrity slightly at odds with the musics tragic outline the effect is simply splendid detailed soloistic camera work this music deserved a visually animated performance of this vibrant quality years ago ~ a Norwegian Chamber ensemble their playing so live and vital~ Antithesis of some turgid responses to this music.As a string music buff I need little convincing but this wonderful take is just the ticket.