David Dalle
Thursday May 11th, 2017 with David Dalle
Two great adventurous and complementary works for 13 and 15 instruments. Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra with their landmark 1969 album and Alban Berg's 1925 Chamber Concerto for piano, violin, and 13 wind instruments. More Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Starting today's show with two absolutely stunning and adventurous works for 13 and 15 instruments. First we will hear Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra from their landmark 1969 album. This magnificent album was the inspired by Charlie Haden hearing some songs from the Spanish civil war and features 13 towering jazz musicians: Perry Robinson — clarinet Gato Barbieri — tenor saxophone, clarinet Dewey Redman — alto saxophone, tenor saxophone Don Cherry — cornet, flute, Indian wood & bamboo flutes (3,5) Michael Mantler — trumpet Roswell Rudd — trombone Bob Northern — French horn, hand wood blocks, crow call, bells, military whistle Howard Johnson — tuba Sam Brown — guitar, Tanganyikan guitar, thumb piano Carla Bley — piano, tambourine Charlie Haden — bass Paul Motian — drums, percussion Andrew Cyrille — drums, percussion Much of the album was arranged by pianist Carla Bley, and though Charlie Haden sadly died in 2014, Carla Bley will be leading the Liberation Music Orchestra at this year's Ottawa Jazz Festival on Wednesday June 28th. Another stunning piece which I find complements the Liberation Music Orchestra extremely well and for almost the same number of instruments is Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for piano, violin, and 13 wind instruments from 1925. This masterpiece was one of his later works using the 12 tone serial method of his mentor Schoenberg and demonstrates just how dramatic and beautiful 12 tone music can be. It is in 3 interrelated movements with a tone row based on the name of Schoenberg, as the piece was composed in honour of Schoenberg's 50th birthday.