Author Archives: Robert Jan Dukarm

Dedicated to You – Ella Fitzgerald

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Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)

Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer.  She has often been referred to as the “First Lady of Song,” “Queen of Jazz,” and “Lady Ella.”  Ella Fitzgerald was known for the purity of her tone, impeccable diction, fine phrasing and impeccable intonation, as well as a horn-like way of improvising when she was scat singing.

Early in her career Ella Fitzgerald performed with the Chick Webb Orchestra and had musical success performing across the country.  Her solo career began in 1942.  Ella Fitzgerald appeared in many movies and as a guest on many popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century.  Outside of her solo career, Ella was famous for her collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and the Ink Spots.

Ella Fitzgerald made some of her most famous recordings on the Verve label such as a recording of the Great American Songbook.

Here is an early recording (1937) of Ella Fitzgerald singing “Dedicated to You.”  She is accompanied by the Mills Brothers.

Nicola Porpora – Morte Amara – soprano Simone Kermes

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Nicola Porpora (1686-1768)

Nicola Porpora was an Italian composer and singing teacher.  He worked for the Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt and the Portuguese ambassador in Naples.  Porpora composed serenatas, cantatas, oratorios, sacred operas, over 100 other sacred works, several instrumental works, and vocalization exercises, and 50 operas.  Nicola Porpora had a great understanding of the art of singing and his melodic lines are often intricate and embellished.

Simone Kermes (1970-)

Simone Kermes is a German coloratura soprano.  She is well known for her singing of the baroque and classical operatic repertoire.

Here is a recording of Simone Kermes singing an aria from Act ll scene 10 of the opera Quinto Fabio by Nicola Porpora with Claudio Osele’s Le Musiche Nove ensemble.  Enjoy!

Ashkenazy plays Rachmaninov Preludes

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Vladimir Ashkenazy (1937-)

Vladimir Ashkenazy made his debut as a concert pianist in Moscow in 1945.  In 1955 he won second prize in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Poland.  In 1956 Ashkenazy won first prize in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium.  in 1962 Vladimir Ashkenazy and John Ogdon both won first prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Ashkenazy is noted for his interpretations of Rachmaninov’s music.  He is also known for his warm and sincere playing of the Romantic piano repertoire and sensitive and clear playing of the music of W.A. Mozart.  In the middle of his career as a concert pianist he took up orchestral conducting.  He still makes solo piano recordings and performs on the piano but he is busy conducting orchestras.

Here are three preludes by Sergei Rachmaninov performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy.  The first is the Prelude in f sharp minor op.23, no.1.  The second is the prelude op.23, no.4 in D Major, and the third is the Prelude op.23, no.10 in G Flat Major.  I hope that you enjoy this beautiful music as much as I do.

 

Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang “Goin Places,” and “Stringing the Blues”

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Joe Venuti (1903-1978)

Joe Venuti is considered by many people to be the father of jazz violin.  He is well known today for his recordings with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang.  Venuti also worked with Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, and the Boswell Sisters and Bix Beiderbecke as well as other jazz musicians.

Eddie Lang (1902-1933)

Eddie Lang is the father of the jazz guitar.  He worked primarily with violinist Joe Venuti (from 1921-1933).  Eddie Lang was a member of the Paul Whiteman orchestra.  He also worked with Louis Armstrong, blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson, and later in his career he was Bing Crosby’s accompanist.

 

Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang were a major influence on Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.  Here are two recordings of Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti entitled “Goin Places,” and “Stringing the Blues.”  On “Goin Places” Arthur Schutt joins Lang and Venuti on the piano.

W.A. Mozart – Ruhe sanft mein holdes Leben – Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano

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W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian composer, violinist, pianist, organist, and child prodigy.  His talent for music was evident at the age of three.  Mozart composed a wide variety of music ranging from little piano pieces for children to chamber music, symphonies, operas, and sacred choral music.

Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben comes from W.A. Mozart’s opera Zaide (originally called Das Serail) which was written by Mozart in 1780.  The opera was never completed.  Only the arias and ensemble numbers from the first two acts were written.  There is no overture or third act.

The opera is interesting because it contains spoken dialogue which means that it can also be classified as a singspiel, or “singing play.”  The plot of the opera is about the rescue of Zaide’s husband, Gomatz.  During Mozart’s time it was popular for operas to be written about Westerners being rescued from enslavement in Muslim courts.  Muslim pirates were going after Mediterranean shipping in order to capture slaves.

 

Dame Emma Kirkby (1949-)

Dame Emma Kirkby is an English soprano and a renowned early music specialist.  The 2008 Grove Book of Opera Singers says:

“Her uncommonly pure, crystalline voice, deployed with minimal vibrato, her natural declamation, agile coloratura and her sensitivity to words have been widely admired by interpreters of early, Renaissance and Baroque music and have served as a model for many specialists in this repertory.”

Here is a recording of Dame Emma Kirkby singing Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben from Mozart’s Zaide accompanied by the Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Christopher Hogwood.  I hope that you enjoy it.

 

Swing Gitan – All of Me, Avalon, and That’s A Plenty

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Swing Gitan is a gypsy jazz ensemble based in Chicago.  The group plays 1930s style music of Django Reinhardt on acoustic instruments.  Alfonso Ponticelli is the lead guitarist, Tony Ballog (died in 2013) is the violinist, Jason Miller is the rhythm guitarist, and Beau Sample is the bass player.  Here they are playing “All of Me,” “Avalon,” and “That’s A Plenty” at Midwest Gypsy Swing Fest in 2009.  I hope you enjoy this.

 

Martin Weiss (jazz violinist) Them Their Eyes, After You’ve Gone, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love

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Martin Weiss is a jazz violinist, guitarist, and singer.  He is one of the top jazz violinists in the world.  Here he is playing three jazz standards:  “Them Their Eyes”, “After You’ve Gone”, and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.”

“Them Their Eyes” and “After You’ve Gone” are from the album Gipsy Celebration.  Martin Weiss is the violinist, Kussi Weiss is the solo guitarist, Tschabo Franzen is the rhythm guitarist, and Dietmar Osterburg is the bass player.

“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” is performed live by Martin Weiss and his group, the Martin Weiss World Sinti Jazz Ensemble at Luxembourg in April 2010.

I hope that you enjoy these upbeat performances of three great jazz standards.

Birelli Lagrene – Gypsy Project

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Birelli Lagrene (1966 –

Birelli Lagrene is a French guitarist and bassist.  He first became famous in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt influenced style of guitar playing.  Birelli is also known for playing fusion jazz and post bebop style jazz on the guitar.

Florin Niculescu (1967 –

Florin Niculescu is a Romanian gypsy violinist.  He is one of the top jazz violinists and is comfortable playing gypsy jazz as well as modern jazz.  Some people have called him the successor to the great French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.

In 2001 Niculescu joined Birelli Lagrene and his “Gypsy Project” which takes its inspiration from Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.

Here is a recording of several jazz standards played by Birelli Lagrene and his “Gypsy Project” in 2001.  The musicians are Birelli Lagrene (solo guitar), Florin Niculescu (violin), Rhythm guitars – Hono Winterstein and Holzmano Lagrène, Diego Imbert (double bass), and Richard Galliano (accordion).  I hope you enjoy it.

 

Gustav Mahler – Adagietto from 5th Symphony – Leonard Bernstein

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Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Gustav Mahler was a Bohemian-Austrian conductor, pianist, and composer.  He held conducting posts at the Vienna Opera, Royal Opera in Budapest, the Stadttheater in Hamburg, Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic.

Mahler is known today as one of the last great symphonists.  He composed 10 symphonies, several songs. and a piano quartet and opera (the opera was lost).

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, and pianist.  He held conducting posts with the Isreal Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and quickly gained an international reputation conducting in Vienna and La Scala. Bernstein was a noted conductor of Mahler’s symphonies.

As a composer, Bernstein is known today for his Candide Overture and Westside Story.

Here is a recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a performance of the 2nd movement of Mahler’s Symphony no.5.  Enjoy.