Incidentally, I just heard the Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin album. Very pleasant, but nothing surprising. Wilson hasn't really developed as an arranger since the sixties; he's only been able to take advantage of new technology to do the same thing. He has a bossa nova arrangements, a doo wop arrangement, a surf arrangement...and just applies them to the Gershwins' songs. The two songs that he crafted from fragments left behind by Gershwin are pretty tepid. The best of the tracks were the ones of songs from "Porgy and Bess."
Cary Ginell
> Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 20:18:25 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mitch Miller RIP
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Can you imagine Mitch Miller seeing anything in Stevie Ray Vaughn in his 70s?
> You might write this off to a classical background,but for every closed-minded
> classical musician,there are just as many examples of
> composers,violinists,etc.who embraced jazz in the 20s,and 30s, and a few who
> embraced rock.The Leonard Bernstein Brian Wilson example,is one of the most
> obvious ones,but there are a few others.
>
> Roger
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tue, August 3, 2010 8:45:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mitch Miller RIP
>
> I met both hammond and miller in my travels and while they certainly shared some
> similarities hammond was by far the greater judge of talent and willing to
> evolve. Miller remained mired in an antiquated sense of what pop meant while
> hammond went on to sign springsteen! Hammond was funny, approachable and
> engaging, miller not so much. Same generation but such different sensibilities.
>
> Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless
>
> -----Original message-----
> From: Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wed, Aug 4, 2010 02:32:44 GMT+00:00
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mitch Miller RIP
>
> The article also mentions him conducting symphony orchestras.Any videos
> orrecordings of this?
>
> Roger
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Cary Ginell <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tue, August 3, 2010 12:47:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mitch Miller RIP
>
> There's a lot on Miller's work for Mercury in Dennis McClellan's article in
> theLos Angeles Times today, which, by the way, was on the front page. They
> talkedabout him providing the "whip" sound for Frankie Laine's recording of
> "MuleTrain," the overdubbing on Patti Page's "Money, Marbles and Chalk," and his
> rolein the careers of Mercury artists like Vic Damone and Patti Page. He
> evenmentions Miller playing on the "Charlie Parker with Strings" LPs. Miller did
> alot for Columbia in the same way Dave Dexter did for Capitol; they were fine
> formiddle-of-the-road artists, but refused to change with the times or accept
> thevalidity of the public's changing styles. Miller turned down Elvis;
> Dexterturned down the Beatles at least four times. They made their mark for what
> theythemselves liked, but as businessmen, they had their limitations and failed
> tohave their fingers on the pulse of where the public's tastes were going. This
> iswhy someone like George Martin has to be admired: he was a classical guy who
>
> produced the Goons in England and used his ability to adapt to the
> Beatles'style. With Miller's musicality and experience, he might have done the
> samething at Columbia, but refused to acknowledge rock 'n' roll as a bonafide
> artform and something that could have made Columbia millions. Instead,
> theystagnated in the rock world. Only John Hammond gave Columbia any place in
> therock world by signing Bob Dylan, then just a folk singer who happened to
> developinto a rock legend. As a partial result of Miller's influence, Columbia
> didn'thave any bonafide rock 'n' roll talents until Janis Joplin in the late
> '60s.
>
>
>
> Cary Ginell
>
> > Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 13:58:50 -0400
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [ARSCLIST] Mitch Miller RIP
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > In the (few) obits I've read for Mitch Miller, I didn't see any mention of
> his
> > early role in Mercury
> > Records, which was important for the young independent company. Miller was
> an
> > oboe player, Eastman
> > School trained. He was hired at Mercury by John Hammond and he, Hammond
> and
> > David Hall comprised the
> > company's earliest classical-music staff. Miller recorded an album
> >ofoboe/chamber orchestra music
> > for Mercury, as well as worked on the "Charlie Parker with Strings"
> sessions
> > for Norman Granz. At
> > that time, Granz was affiliated with Mercury.
> >
> > After Miller went to Columbia and, among many other things, founded the
> famous
> > 30th Street studio,
> > he continued to moonlight with other projects. One on-going thing for him
> in
> > the 50's and 60's was
> > conducting, arranging and producing sessions for Little Golden Book kiddie
>
> > records. He did some of
> > these sessions at Fine Sound and then Fine Recording.
> >
> > Some of the obits and tributes struck me as very ironic. Miller was
> portrayed
> > as this old
> > fuddy-duddy of suburbia in the age of rock and roll with his sing-along
> show.
> > The goatee should have
> > slain that myth. Both Miller and Hammond were cutting-edge dudes in their
> time,
> > very much on the
> > forefront of music and intellectual thought, and far left of the
> mainstream in
> > their social and
> > political views. They were progressives before there was such a term.
> >
> > Mitch Miller did much for the music business, and for Mercury and then
> Columbia
> > Records. May he rest
> > in peace.
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
>
>
>
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