Jazz Is Precise!

This pianist sounds really great. So was most of this article. The beginning, however, gave me pause.

Meticulous Jazzman of the World

The title does not bode well. What does this mean? Also, what does the qualifier “of the world” disambiguate or contribute? Now, if he was from another world, that would be something.

THE Cuban-born pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who over the last 15 years or so has become one of the greatest musicians in jazz,

Huge sweeping broad generalization, but okay, I’m still with you.

is meticulous about music.

What does that mean? His music is precise? Not sloppy? Because, you know, most of those jazz musicians are sloppy, dirty men who only play in dive bars. (As we learned here.)

You can tell this by the first unaccompanied notes of “Avatar”,

I have to wait until the first unaccompanied notes to tell…this (that his music is meticulous, I think)? Or…are the first notes on the album unaccompanied? This is a bit vague, and, I propose, not meticulous.

his complexly beautiful new album.

His new album sounds complexly beautiful! Too bad I don’t know what that means.

He has an almost eerie control over his sound, as if he were playing the strings directly instead of using the keys as intermediaries.

This makes him…meticulous. Okay… Also, qualifying "eerie" with "almost" does not make it sound more meticulous. It, instead, makes it sounds less meticulous. See?

He is also meticulous about ideas.

He is also…what? Perhaps we should finish the paragraph.

He tends to classify music rather exactly,

The qualifier “rather” makes his exactness seem less meticulous. Again. Just saying.

and he talks about jazz in terms of codes and information.

I understand this. It sounds like semiotics of a sort. Semiotics, while (often) deeply cool, is about as inexact and subjective a discipline as any I’ve encountered. Meticulous?

He prepares his records — “productions,” he calls them — with conceptual rigor.

He calls his records “productions” is on the what now?

Mr. Rubalcaba has spent about a decade living in southern Florida in a quiet gated community about half-hour from Fort Lauderdale.

Is his lawn meticulous? The “quiet gated community” thing makes me imagine his meticulously trimmed lawn.

His life looks more like that of a classical-music virtuoso than a jazz musician.

Translation: he does not take lots of drugs and hang out in dives. Great. That’s just great.

He goes to the airport, tours, comes home and dives back into practice.

Jazz musicians hate to practice. And classical musicians? They totally love going to the airport. Don't even get me started on classical musicians and their love of airport-going.

The rest of the article is not bad. I was just confused by the lack of meticulousness of the opening. Mr. Rubalcaba sounds like he is fabulous.

The end.

Someone Killed All of the Editors. Again.

String quartets try to reconciles jazz and tradition

What? Seriously? Jesus. Subject-verb agreement much?

The urge to reconcile jazz with classical music has persisted since the first classical folks stumbled into a jazz dive.

This is totally made up. You made that up. No research was done. “Classical folks” “stumbled” into a “jazz dive”. The subtext is not so subtext-y, Mr. Ward. Classical musicians/composers are/were elite, effite fucks who are totally alienated from the public. Also, jazz is/was played in dives.

The crusade continues,

The urge is now a crusade. Take note! Take that, unreconciled jazz/classical divide!

as the Ying and Turtle Island string quartets showed Tuesday at Rice University in their traveling gig aimed at assuring that all is well in the brotherhood of string ensembles.

I think I know what this sentence is trying to convey. One would think, though, that it was not written by a professional…writer. Surely it would have been constructed…better. I don’t know. It should probably be more than one sentence. Less passive voice? Let’s try to reconstruct it with the subject first.

“The Ying and Turtle Island string quartets showed that the crusade continues Tuesday at Rice University, in their travelling gig [ed: what?] aimed at assuring that all is well in the brotherhood of string ensembles.”

No, that still sucks.

Darius Milhaud is said to have started it all

By whom? (This is not true.) Also, passive voice. Just sayin'.

with his short ballet The Creation of the World (1922-23),

I think you mean La Création du Monde. But that’s ok, I’m an idiot and wouldn’t be able to understand cognates. Did you hear about Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony?

inspired in part by a 1920 visit to a Harlem jazz club.

If true, this is the first useful, or, for that matter, concrete, piece of information so far. Bravo.

So the two ensembles used that work to start their second half, devoted to works of reconciliation.

I…what? Getting my sentence-parsing kit...

So the two ensembles

The two string quartets you mentioned, I assume.

used that work

Milhaud’s La Création du Monde, I think. This is unclear but, I guess, implied.

to start their second half,

The second half…of the concert? Or “travelling gig”? Did you mention the first half? Did I miss something? I don’t feel so good.

devoted to works of reconciliation.

Of jazz and “tradition”. Jazz is not a tradition. Or something. But at least I got through that sentence. That was dicey. So, to recap in word language:

“The Milhaud ballet began the second half of the concert, which was devoted to works reconciling jazz and traditional repertoire.”

Or something.

The first half of the Houston Friends of Music event contained "pure" music.

Sigh. “Pure” is in quotes, which should either mean a) someone said it, and you are quoting them, or b) you are being sarcastic, or sardonic. I don’t think either is the case. But I do it often enough for emphasis, so whatever.

However: what? What is “pure” music? Classical music? Wordless music? Unadulterated music? Music that has never known the love of a strong, smelly man?

The Yings, all siblings, offered a strikingly different accounts of Ravel's Quartet in F Major

My only prayer is that this egregious construction is meant to parallel the construction in the title.

Why, oh, why did we kill all of the editors and proofreaders? Sure, they were annoying. But they were necessary. They were sort of like lawyers, but for writing. *Sniff* I…miss them.

(Ravel was another Frenchman later awakened by the siren of jazz).

Again with this crap. Ravel was totally asleep before he heard jazz. Also, he was pretty short!

The rest of the thing is pretty much description. If you care, go read it here. I have but two quips left. Well, maybe three.

Except for the vivid Ravel quartet, the performances and arrangements were frequently bland and always unoffensive –

I wish I could say the same about your writings about them.

the sort that can make chamber music audiences feel good about being just a little naughty in letting barbarians inside the gates.

You are here to reinforce the classical/jazz divide. The “reconciliation” aspect was, apparently, lost on you, because it’s all you can talk about.

Perhaps hearing jazz played by a string quartet is a learned habit,

A…learned habit?

but the sameness of sound

Of the strings? Is that what you mean? Because it is not clear. Maybe reading your articles is a learned habit?

didn't allow solo voices to stand out the way they do in small jazz ensembles, which usually have a group of distinctive sounding instruments melding into a unit. When an alto sax takes off, you know it's not the piano or double bass.

Uh, yes.

Then, for me jazz has always worked better in nightclubs and jazz clubs rather than concert halls. I suspect part of the reason lies in the cultural legacy jazz carried as it came out of New Orleans. In many cases, it grew living on the edge. In most cases today, concert halls are designed to keep the edge out.

You are here to reinforce the jazz/classical divide. I get it now.

That is too bad.