 Returning for their second GM
co-release, Dick Peaslee and Bill Russo celebrate the
evolving role of the soloist in contemporary,
jazz-inflected concerto and chamber settings.
Russo's The English Concerto
was commissioned in the early 1960s by Yehudi Menuhin and
is performed here by the great Stevyn Staryk and the
London Jazz Orchestra, the group which gave its 1963
premiere.
Peaslee's Chicago Concerto was
commissioned in the late '60s for Gerry Mulligan and the
Chicago Jazz Ensemble. Here it is given glorious
voice by the extraordinary Gary Smulyan and the Manhattan
School of Music Ensemble.
Peaslee conceived both the Nightsongs
and The Devil's Herald with smaller forces
in mind — the former for trumpet soloist with strings
and harp, the latter for tuba soloist with horn quartet
and percussion. These works are brilliantly
rendered by the musicians for which they were crafted:
Philip A Smith, principal trumpet of the New York
Philharmonic, and the venerable tuba virtuoso Harvey
Phillips.
(Also see their first co-release on GM, William Russo: The Carousel Suite/Richard
Peaslee: Stonehenge.)
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