Birth of the Third Stream

Various Artists (Artist), Gunther Schuller (Composer), John Lewis (Composer), J.J. Johnson (Composer), George Russell (Composer), Charles Mingus (Composer), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002ADQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,077 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #13 in Music > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime > Ragtime
  • #31 in Music > Jazz > Orchestral Jazz
  • #40 in Music > Pop > By Decade > 1950s

Track Listings

1. Three Little Feelings

2. Poem For Brass

3. All About Rosie

4. Revelations (First Movement)

5. Suspensions

6. Symphony For Brass And Percussion

7. Transformation

8. Pharaoh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pinnacle, October 27, 2009

By 

B. J Robbins (La Quinta, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Birth of the Third Stream (Audio CD)

It doesn't get better than this. Classical mixed with jazz composed by top notch composers and performed by brilliant jazzman. Why this album is out of print is something only record companies understand. The music is as fresh and exciting as it was when it was released some 50+ years ago. Mingus, Russell, Giuffre, Schuller, Miles, Bill Evans, Joe Wilder, J J Johnson, et al...the top echelon of progressive jazz in the 1950's...this album deserves to be in distribution forever...

The music business is about business, and not music...pity...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential, May 19, 2010

By 

Just Mike (New York City) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Birth of the Third Stream (Audio CD)

Completely agree with the preceding review. The albums included in this CD were ground-breaking and game-changing, pre-dating and anticipating the Miles Davis / Gil Evans collaborations, Charles Mingus' orchestral works, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. How Columbia / Legacy has allowed this to go out of print is just baffling. Would you let "Kind of Blue" or "Giant Steps" go out of print? In its own way, this CD is just as seminal. The history of jazz, "America's classical music," is complicated and intertwined with the shameful history of American racism. Yes it's true that white people misappropriated, commercially exploited, and set themselves up as taste-makers for what began, essentially, as an African American art form. Yet it seems to be equally true that Charlie Parker walked around with the score of Stravinsky's "Firebird" in his coat pocket, Coltrane listened obsesssively to Debussy and Salzedo, and Mingus had an epiphany while listening to Bartok on a transistor radio at Bellevue Hospital. Here's where it all comes together. I had somehow lost my original copy of this CD years ago, and thought I'd never be able to replace it. Thanks to Amazon I found a like-new used copy at a very reasonable price. Grab this one if you get a chance.

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Highpoints in Jazz, July 2, 2011

By 

Walter J. Jamieson Jr. - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Birth of the Third Stream (Audio CD)

Since your two previous reviewers both gave ***** to this, there is no room for disagreement, except for one minor correction: the reviewer who said that these recordings anticipated the MJQ is mistaken. The MJQ was formed by Lewis, Jackson, Ray Brown(later Percy Heath)and Kenny Clarke when they were members of Dizzy's Big Band about 5 or 6 years earlier. I might add for those fans of Miles Davis who are unfamiliar with this, that Miles was one of the guests performing on the Lewis and Johnson pieces and played some of the most beautiful solos he ever recorded.