Bernard Gregoire wrote:

>Friends...I wonder if Steve Schwartz is over analyzing both Marsalis and
>Macartney.  Both talented creaters, they obviously work in the "crack"
>between the genres.

Interesting thought, though I'm not sure I agree.  My feeling, along with
Steve Schwartz's if I understand him correctly, is that McCartney would
like to get to the other side of that crack.

>Let's enjoy their creations for what they are instead of trying to fit them
>in to set pigeonholes.

My guess is that McCartney might admit to striving to produce something
of import in CM ...and perhaps even to falling short in these first few
attempts.

But given Steve's penchant for/expertise with choral music, I'd be more
curious to hear his take on Elvis Costello's "The Juliet Letters - A Song
Sequence for SQ and Voice," produced with the Brodsky Quartet in 1993
(Warner Bros CDW 45180).  I wasn't a member of the MCML then, and wonder
if it's been touched on previously.

Unlike McCartney, the more jovial half of the Lennon/McC.  creative duo,*
Costello is one of pop music's few real heavyweights, IMO, and far more
likely to produce something of real import in CM.  His career has involved
productive collaborations with the likes of Bacharach and McCartney too,
and his output has always shown signs of impatience with the means and
modes available to 'pop' musicians.

* For all the huge fun they gave us and their undeniable talent, as Pete
Townshend once said: "The Beatles rate in rock music right beside Herman's
Hermits" ...or words to that effect.

Costello's achievements range far beyond new wave and rock, into blues
('Almost Blue,' etc.), country (the Almost Blue LP/CD), various forms
of jazz ('Shipbuilding,' Imperial Bedroom, Trust), and hybrids that, from
way back, include the quasi-classical ('Hoover Factory' to name something
early).

The 'Juliet Letters' would definitely rank as his major foray in
traditional CM forms.  I'd be interested not just Steve Schwartz's
impressions, of course...

Bert Bailey, in Ottawa