Bernstein Tribute

Leonard Bernstein (Composer), Anthony di [Composer/Trumpet] Lorenzo (Composer), Charles Pillow (Composer), Proteus 7 (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Proteus 7
• Composer: Leonard Bernstein, Anthony di [Composer/Trumpet] Lorenzo, Charles Pillow
• Audio CD (April 11, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dorian Recordings
• ASIN: B00004RJM7
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,651 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Broadway, jazz, ragtime, classical, sacred--Leonard Bernstein incorporated so many elements in his work that there comes a point at which genre is irrelevant. Proteus 7, comprising two trumpets, tuba, percussion, woodwind, and a pair of trombones, has a most appropriate name for an ensemble paying tribute to this genius. The seven jazz musicians perform their own arrangements, mostly by percussionist F. Feza Zweifel, alongside original compositions. Bernstein's Mass provoked controversy with brass bands and electric guitars, yet the excerpts here are both joyfully golden and reverential. Anthony DiLorenzo brings some blistering, exhilarating trumpet to the "Mambo" from West Side Story (his own composition Mostly Influential, a fantasy on Gershwin, Prokofiev, and Bernstein playing poker). Woodwind player Charles Pillow adds his own commentary with the Suite from West Side Story, three short movements that interpolate new material with the original score, especially the song "I Have a Love." The innovative, boundary-breaking spirit of Bernstein lives on in a set that should appeal to lovers of jazz and 20th-century classical music equally. Performances are tight, polished, and dynamic, and the recorded sound stupendous. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bernstein riff in just the right spirit of jazzy fun, September 14, 2008

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Bernstein Tribute (Audio CD)

I've never encountered the above Amazon reviewer boefore, but I cna only echo his enthusiasm for this jazzy riff on famous and not so famous Bernstien tunes. Proteus 7 is a modified brass quintet, and such ensembles, since they derive from music conservatories and symphony orchestras, generally feel squzre. Proteus isn't immune to a few flat-footed rhythms, but they soar above other recent Bernstein tribues in his centenary year (EMI reached into its back catalog for leaden and/or sleepy performances, including those by Leonard Slatkin that garnered good reviews in the 80s).

This is a CD of tidbits, centering on a single melody at a time. That's its only limitation, really. After half a dozen two-minute excerpts you feel that Bernstein is being put through a Cuisinart. But I'm not complaining. At the ridiculously low price of this tribute at Amazon Marketplace, anyone can afford to taste its delights. Dorian's sonics, by the way, are of demonstration quality.