[78-L] Grappelly.

[Howard Friedman]

I don't have the hostility towards Steph, at least with his early work, 
as some other on this list. He seems to be the first jazz musician to 
"improvise by the yard". Awhile back I suggested that Wardell Gray was 
another one. I agree that Steph tended to slurp and scoop in later years.

      Julian Vein

Julian,

If I get vehement sometimes, it's often a question of playing devil's advocate.  If you take black, I'll take what, or vice versa, and so on.  An appreciation of music, whatever the genre or the performer, cannot be taught or even learned.  It comes from the heart, not the head.  Which is why there are so many different kinds of music-- and I use that word VERY loosely!--and so many different performers.  For example, noone could write an operatic overture like Rossini, but noone could write a symphone like Beethoven, not even Mozart.  Mozart was more creative tonally and melodically, but Beethoven raised the orchestra to its pinnacle, beyond which even a Berlioz or a Brahms could not go.

Howard