-
Recent Posts
-
Recent Comments
-
Tags
3/21/09 Abraham AbrahamHicks Album Astonishing atlantis Attraction Browne Browne's CD/TAPE Cocreation Cruise edgar cayce Edward Edwards' Emotions Francisco Guide Hicks jesus John Life Metaphysical Schools Metaphysics New Age New Age Spirituality Occult Paranormal Power Psychic Psychicism Relationships Religion And Spirituality Special Spiritual Spirituality Spirituality Information Subjects Sylvia Vortex WellBeing Workbook Workshop World Yoga
5 Comments
John Edward Kelly is truly a unique saxophonist. While I don’t like his tone that much, his decent technique and brilliant musicality shine through. His interpretations of the Ibert and Larsson are very good standards for these very popular pieces. The Martin, while not as popular as the other two, is still brilliantly presented and is worth a listen to. The only recording of the Ibert I would prefer over this is John Harle’s, that’s just my opinion. I would definitely recommend this cd especially at this price.
Rating: 4 / 5
John Kelly would make Adolphe Sax proud with his concept of tone. Dark, round tone, great articulation, and good interpretation make this a great reference CD for sax players.
Of course, there is the war of saxophone worlds. There will be those that call Kelly’s tone “hollow,” and the same has been said of my playing. I use open chamber equipment myself, and enjoy that particular sound.
Rascher understood Sax’s wishes, and I wish he had reached more people in his quest to educate saxophonists. I am trying…
Rating: 5 / 5
There is no other saxophonist like John-Edward Kelly. Once you’ve heard him, you can forget the rest of them, big names and all. His command of the instrument is unbelievable, his artistic maturity and musical taste beyond compare. There are many saxophonists, a few of which are even good musicians, but there is only one John-Edward Kelly. Period. If you only buy one recording with classical saxophone music, make it this one. It’s the only recording of Martin and Ibert with all the high tones, and the most beautiful Larsson ever. Great playing, great orchestra, great pieces. It’s only a pity that the rest of his CD’s are so hard to find.
Rating: 5 / 5
Although John Edward Kelly is a gifted saxophonist his tone sounds like its missing something, his minimum use of vibrato sounds as if he is an inexperienced saxophonist. In my mind nobody plays Ibert’s Concertino de Camera like Marcel Mule(truly one of the most gifted saxophonist ever)
Rating: 2 / 5
Much of the focus in the customer comments hear is on the quality of John-Edward Kelly’s tone. While this is entirely understandable, it does perhaps do an injustice to the other considerable qualities of his playing, and of his performances of these three masterworks for saxophone.
Yes, his sound isn’t the sweetest, prettiest you could ever hear. He sounds like he’s playing one of Sigurd Rascher’s keyless tubes. Strangest of all, he sometimes sounds like a congested bassoon. But it isn’t the ugliest I’ve ever heard on disc and there are many moments when he sounds nice, even. On the Bornkamp-Bensmann scale, he’s somewhere in the middle: nowhere near as refined as Arno, nowhere near as rough-as-guts as Detlef.
What makes this disc special is Kelly’s remarkably assured technique in tackling the fiendish altissimo challenges of these pieces (Ibert included) with great success–he doesn’t soften them, smooth them out, like Sugawa, and he’s not as screechy as Savijoki. But, more than just that, he plays the Martin and Larsson musically about right. Tempos are well judged, the composers’ thorny qualities are preserved, lyrical passages are there when they need to be; balance with the orchestra, dynamics, all are very well done. I love his articulation, too. At a time when performers–Harle especially, even Delangle to some extent–seem to avoid tonguing like the plague, Kelly shows how crisp clear articulation isn’t just an interpretive choice, but is an integral rhythmic, phrasal element of wind music. In some ways he is most reminiscent of Marcel Mule in his articulation.
While this disc will always polarize sax players, it is not without its considerable merits. For its accuracy in presenting these works as they were written for their dedicatee, Sigurd Rascher, its quite an important disc too.
(Sugawa: Nobuya Sugawa plays Honda, Yoshimatsu, Ibert, Larson; Savijoki: Saxophone Concerti)
Rating: 4 / 5