Dick Hyman - Thinking About Bix (Ocrd)
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Artist: Dick HymanBrand: HYMAN,DICK
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-08-12
Music Label: Reference Recordings
Soundtracks:
- Thinking About Bix
- Singin' the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)
- Ostrich Walk
- I'm Coming, Virginia
- Jazz Me Blues
- Candlelights
- 'Tain't So, Honey, 'Tain't So
- Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down
- In the Dark
- Clementine (From New Orleans)
- Lonely Melody
- In a Mist
- Sweet Sue (Just You)
- Wringin' and Twistin'
- Flashes
- Davenport Blues
- You Took Advantage of Me
Music reviews of Thinking About Bix (Ocrd)
Music Review: Hyman's Beiderbecke suite is disappointing
Rating: 3 Stars
I had high expectations for this CD: Bix Beiderbecke remains my favorite jazz musician, and Dick Hyman has always ranked among my very favorite interpreters of early 20th century jazz and ragtime piano styles. Despite the common criticism that "Dick Hyman plays in everybody's style but his own," he's just so amazing in his accuracy and energy when playing a Fats Waller stride piece or a Jelly Roll Morton stomp that I don't really care. On this CD, in addition to the "Beiderbecke piano solo suite" (more on that later), he arranges many of Bix Beiderbecke's classic recordings as piano solos. It really is remarkable how well he is able to distill the essence of the original band performances on a single piano. In this case, he does it almost *too* well! A number of the cuts on this CD ("Singing The Blues" and "Ostrich Walk") sound like mere piano reductions of a band score, with the original improvised solos inserted and recreated note-for-note. Others (like "Wringing And Twistin'") are given much looser treatment. "Clementine" sounds almost exactly the same as Hyman's solo piano version of the tune on the Arbors "Bix Centennial All-Stars" CD. This CD has a nice mix of faithful transcriptions and more creative re-imaginings to please purists and non-purists alike. As always, however, Hyman's playing seems to be on the border of being "too polite." In many cases, Hyman has captured the notes of the original recordings, but not much of the "feeling." Tempos are generally relaxed and dynamics seldom venture above mezzo forte, making this disc an excellent choice for background music at your next dinner party. It's "nice" piano playing--always tasteful and elegant--but without the "punch" or sparkle of Beiderbecke's original recordings.
My biggest qualm with this CD, however, lies in the treatment of Beiderbecke's "Modern Piano Suite"--the four piano solos that Beiderbecke composed and which Bill Challis transcribed and edited: "Candlelights," "Flashes," "In The Dark," and "In A Mist." The promotional team behind this CD has bragged widely that these are the "definitive performances" of these four piano solos. Unfortunately, it just ain't so. To be fair, they are among the best solo piano recordings I have heard of the pieces to date in terms of general approach, but they are still disappointing. I never thought I'd hear myself say this about Hyman, but his readings of the Beiderbecke piano solos are downright sloppy. I'm not talking about the creative license a jazz musician has to reinterpret music to suit his or her own style (and Hyman does wander deliberately from the published scores a bit). I'm concerned with rhythms and notes that are plain wrong. Beiderbecke's four piano pieces are brilliant for how much they say with so few notes, but in doing so, every note becomes especially important. When Hyman lazily misses the final "E" and "B" (playing "F" and "C") in the right hand in measure 20 of "In A Mist," it *completely* ruins the effect. This is the end of a four-measure phrase in which pulsing B-natural octaves in the left hand are answered by bouncy little figures in the right hand finishing on B-natural as well. This last little figure *must* end on the B-natural indicated in the score. When Hyman unsteadily and rather hurriedly ends the phrase with a "C" in the right hand, it leaves an unpleasant and unresolved tritone between the C in the right and the F# in the left hand. I'm sure Beiderbecke didn't want that, and I'm sure Hyman didn't either. It's just sloppy playing that should have been patched and corrected in the editing room. You can hear the mistake in the middle of 0:34 on the CD. If I sound overly critical or nit-picky, it's because I love these pieces and the example I'm citing is only one among many mistakes. Hyman's performances on this CD are riddled with sloppy moments that seriously detract from the beauty of the compositions. Another such moment occurs in measure 96 of "Candlelights" (3:30 on your CD player). Beiderbecke and Challis clearly indicate a gorgeous Debussy-esque chord with D-F#-C-E-B, but Hyman squares it off and changes the top "B" to another "D." One could argue that this chord is the climax of the piece, ringing out with Beiderbecke's characteristic bittersweet beauty following a particularly turbulent and dissonant passage (the topmost "B" giving it a haunting tinge of melancholy). Hyman's change to "D" on the top gives this chord a much more heroic quality quite different from what Beiderbecke seems to have intended. (It's akin to touching up a Monet painting to make it sharper and more "in focus.") What it boils down to is that I don't mind if Hyman wants to freely improvise on the Beiderbecke compositions (which he does on "In The Dark"). Improvising is a vital part of jazz, but sloppiness is not. I've followed Hyman's career through the years on records and in concert performances. I know he can play better than this. These slips would be disappointing in a live concert performance of these works; on a professional CD such as this (with a world of digital editing tools at the producer's fingertips), they are inexcusable. I regard Hyman as one of the master jazz pianists of our time. If one of the master pianists in the classical field were to make these kinds of mistakes in a commercial recording of a Beethoven sonata, I would assume he or she was making a joke à la Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. Sadly, in this case, there's nothing funny about it.
There are so few options when it comes to finding recordings of the Beiderbecke piano suite on CD that--despite the at times unbelievable sloppiness--I'm glad to have this CD and I would probably buy it again. It's pleasant enough and makes great background entertainment but don't think for a minute that you're getting the "definitive performances."
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Description of Thinking About Bix (Ocrd)
No Description Available.Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 12-AUG-2008
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