Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music [Live]

Modern Jazz Society | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000K1HZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,428 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Little David's Fugue

2. Django

3. Queen's Fancy

4. Midsommer

5. Sun Dance

6. Turnpike-Rehearsal Take

7. Midsommer-Rehearsal Take

8. Queen's Fancy-Rehearsal Take

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars jazz greats dominate classical players, January 19, 2001

By 

Paul Duynhouwer (Boca Raton, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Audio CD)

great solo work by the underrated Lucky Thompson,plus Jay Jay Johnson, Stan Getz, Aaron Sachs and Tony Scott makes this album a joy to behold. The quasi classical pieces composed and/or arranged by Gunther Schuller and John Lewis feature rather stiff ensemble playing and harp strumming but these shortcomings are easily overcome by the sloists. Thompson's solo on Django has to rank among the greatest ever recorded, Stan Getz is his usual lyrical self while Jay Jay excels for his logic and clarity. A beautiful album of the fifties.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars jazz greats dominate classical players, January 19, 2001

By 

Paul Duynhouwer (Boca Raton, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Audio CD)

great solo work by the underrated Lucky Thompson,plus Jay Jay Johnson, Stan Getz, Aaron Sachs and Tony Scott makes this album a joy to behold. The quasi classical pieces composed and/or arranged by Gunther Schuller and John Lewis feature rather stiff ensemble playing and harp strumming but these shortcomings are easily overcome by the soloists. Thompson's solo on Django has to rank among the greatest ever recorded, Stan Getz is his usual lyrical self while Jay Jay excels for his logic and clarity. A beautiful album of the fifties.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for the Modern Jazz Lover, July 2, 2011

By 

Walter J. Jamieson Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Audio CD)

The superb solos, wonderful compositions, and lovely sound vs. stiffness in the rhythm section are a given to be dealt with in this beautiful recording. Get past that, and you will love this. As your previous reviewers have noted, Lucky Thompson was one of the most under-appreciated of Jazz soloists. He is at his best here, playing on three of the 5 tracks. Lewis' delightfully melodic writing provides perfect settings for Thompson's highly personal inventions. He plays sophisticated 'theme and variations' within his own solos here, as he did on "Walkin'" with Miles, recorded in April 1954, just a year earlier. Every one of his solos is a surprise and a delight. But Thompson is not the only star: Aaron Sachs, less well-known than Thompson, plays wonderfully, getting a longer solo on 'Django' than the others do. JJ fascinates as always with his very personal vocabulary, feeling and logic. Getz brought his beautiful sound to two of these pieces, and Tony Scott plays very well on the same two. The small orchestra accompaniments to the soloists on 'The Queen's Fancy' and 'Django' were adapted by Gunther Schuller from John Lewis' piano comping on the original MJQ versions of these tunes. Every piece has multiple highlights as noted, but there's a section in 'Midsommer' in which Getz first and then Scott join JJ to become a duet and then a trio over a decending chord pattern that can only be called etherial. Ever since "The Modern Jazz Society" appeared on Lp in 1954, I've loved the following remark from John Lewis' original notes. Speaking of the cooking 'Little David's Fugue', he says, "The expositions are written while the episodes are improvised" -- pretty much true of life as well.
Caveat: a serious mistake was made here when they included rehearsal takes of 'The Queen's Fancy', 'Midsommer' and 'Turnpike', a piece said to be by JJ, when it is, in fact, 'Thelonious' by Monk. Skip 'em.