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Jazz pianist Michel Camilo, working with the Barcelona Symphony
Orchestra under Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, attempts here to make
something new out of George Gershwin's heavily recorded Rhapsody in Blue
and Concerto in F -- broadly speaking, he tries to tie these
jazz-classical fusions more closely to their jazz roots. Given the
fluency with which Gershwin moved between the worlds of classical music,
jazz, and pop, the experiment would seem a worthwhile and interesting
one, but the recording, at least for those with the usual ways of
performing Gershwin in their ears, is likely to come off as neither fish
nor fowl. Gershwin's genre-bending status is eloquently attested to by
the multiple extant versions of the Rhapsody in Blue, which is heard
here in its familiar arrangement by Ferde Grofé. Camilo, however, bases
his solo part on Gershwin's original version, a freer, jazzier thing
with a language reminiscent in some ways of Gershwin's own Song-Book
improvisations. Camilo is an adept, exciting player with plenty of
experience in classical music, but the effect of this combination is
perhaps to plunk Gershwin's living room down in the middle of a
symphonic stage. Or perhaps to give an idea of what Art Tatum might have
sounded like playing the Rhapsody in Blue. The recording seems to blur
some strands that Gershwin kept clear as he wove them together. The big,
soupy lyricism that is such an essential component of the Rhapsody is
partly lost. Camilo plays it straighter in the concerto, but this work
too ends up sounding more like modern jazz than it should. Gershwin's
music has always served as a stimulus for new creativity. And a bit of
experiment is necessary to realize his aims fully. Perhaps Camilo's
approach will emerge as the standard in time, but for now it's a detour
down a Gershwin byway. James Manheim
1. Rhapsody in Blue, for piano & orchestra (orchestrated by F. Grofé) 16:46
2-4. Concerto in F, for piano & orchestra
5. Prelude No. 2 6:38
Credits :
Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra
Michel Camilo - Piano
Ernest Martínez Izquierdo - Conductor
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