Richard Stoltzman - 4 Albums (1987-2000)

Richard Leslie Stoltzman (born July 12, 1942) is an American clarinetist. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California, and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory and Boston University. Stoltzman is perhaps the best-known clarinetist who primarily plays classical music. He has played with over 100 orchestras, as well as with many chamber groups and in many solo recitals. Stoltzman has received numerous awards and has produced an extensive discography. His virtuosity and musicianship have made him a highly sought-after concert artist. In addition to classical repertoire, Stoltzman also plays jazz. Some of his recordings, such as his album New York Counterpoint, feature both jazz and modern music. In 1983, Stoltzman commissioned composer/arranger Clare Fischer to write a symphonic work using Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn themes. The result was The Duke, Swee'pea and Me, an eleven-minute orchestral work which Stoltzman performed worldwide.

Stoltzman's father worked for the Western Pacific Railroad and moved his family to San Francisco, California, soon after Richard was born. Stoltzman's first exposure to music came through his father, an avid fan of big band music. Stoltzman's father played the big band music of the 1940s at home on the radio and performed in a dance band during his spare time. Stoltzman began studying the clarinet at the age of eight with a teacher at a local school, and he began playing with his father in the Stewart Memorial United Presbyterian Sunday School Orchestra and at community functions within a few years. When Stoltzman was in junior high school, he began developing the jazz techniques of improvisation and enjoyed jamming with his father at home. Benny Goodman was his earliest musical mentor, and remained a strong influence throughout his career. Stoltzman told Allan Kozinn of the New York Times, "(When) I was seven years old … I found these wonderful cylindrical objects in a nice leather case. I enjoyed playing with them … and I vaguely remember dangling them from the second-story window of our house. That caused quite a stir, because they turned out to be my father's clarinets. But instead of punishing me, he decided that I had an interest in the instrument and rented an indestructible metal clarinet for me to start on."

Stoltzman earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University with a double major in music and mathematics. He then studied with Professor Keith Wilson at the Yale School of Music, where he received the Master of Music degree. He worked toward a doctoral degree at Columbia University. He has been a longtime student of master clarinet pedagogue Kalmen Opperman of New York. Together, they founded the Clarinet Summit, a semi-regular international gathering of clarinetists which has taken place since the 1990s. He has also recorded with the Kalmen Opperman Clarinet Choir.

Stoltzman has appeared as a soloist with numerous major symphonies, at international jazz festivals, and with stars such as Mel Tormé, George Shearing, Judy Collins, Woody Herman, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Claude Bolling and others. He was a founding member of the chamber music group TASHI in 1973. In 1993, he was featured in the BBC series "Concerto!" He was the Guest artist with The Children's Orchestra Society at Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center in 2004. He has also given important recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

His discography includes nearly 40 releases, several of them with TASHI. Stoltzman is noted for his double lip embouchure, wide vibrato, and ability to mimic the sound of a human voice on the clarinet. He combines traditional and contemporary classical and jazz material with his own unorthodox style.

In August 1993, Stoltzman was featured in "Concerto!", a six-part television series featuring host Dudley Moore, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra. "Concerto!", created by the producers of the widely acclaimed "Orchestra" series featuring Moore and Sir Georg Solti, was aired on The Learning Channel and on England's Channel Four, and continues to be broadcast worldwide. The program featuring Stoltzman has been praised by critics and audiences alike and was the recipient of an Emmy Award in the International Performing Arts category.

Stoltzman has played with many widely recognized musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode and Emanuel Ax. He has made an effort to play new music for the clarinet, and has had several works composed for him. Composers include: Toru Takemitsu ("Waves" and a concerto for clarinet and orchestra), Steve Reich ("New York Counterpoint"), Lukas Foss, Roberto Carnevale, and Einar Englund (clarinet concertos).

Stoltzman is known for his longtime collaboration with composer William Thomas McKinley, and his work has been featured frequently in recent years on Navona Records and MMC Recording.

A review in the New York Times said: "His mastery of the clarinet and his impeccable musicianship are no secret by now, but one who has not heard him play for a time can easily forget how rich and fluid the instrument can sound from top to bottom of its range. If Mr. Stoltzman is not one of a kind, who might the others be?"



Although the actual story of working with Steve Reich for the recording (CD#13) I have already talked about in the booklet accompanying the box set, I have a few more comments I'd like to share with you. Most embarrassing is the mistake printed for track seven. The composer of G song is not Tony Bennett but rather FRANK Bennett!
Frank and I were classmates at Yale and I got to know him pretty well when we shared the composer Donald Martino's home one summer while we drove back and forth to the Shakespeare Festival (which I seem to remember was in Stamford, Connecticut). We were both members of a small ensemble of doubling musicians (I played flute, bassoon, and oboe as well as clarinet) put together to perform interludes and other appropriately atmospheric music for the Shakespearean evenings. Frank was a multi-talented percussionist/composer who was also a serious student of one of India's great masters of drumming. He married a gifted musician/vocalist, Gita, and became immersed in the expressive lines of Indian ragas. He wrote G song for me and I first performed it at Cal Arts where I recorded it on my first (and, at the time, I figured, my only) record. Everyone played for free. There was my eclectic mix of music by Schubert and Alban Berg performed exquisitely by Peter Serkin, Bill Douglas' Improvisation Three and Vajra, and Frank's G Song. I paid Givian Cornfield to roll the tape machine and we made the whole thing in one day. I gave the disc to friends calling it "A Gift of Music." Frank Bennett's arranging gifts are on brilliant display in CD #26 "West Side – Variants" with the London Symphony Orchestra.
– Richard Stoltzman

Richard Stoltzman - clarinet, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet
Bill Douglas - piano, electric piano, bassoon
Jeremy Wall - synthesizers
Eddie Gomez - bass
Glen Velez - percussion

Recorded at Bear Tracks Studio, Suffern, NY in July 1986.

Track List:
01. Sky (Douglas) - 4:07
02. Pie Jesu (Webber) - 4:03
03. Feast (Douglas) - 4:52
04. Song for Catherine (Douglas) - 3:03
05. The Circular Word (Wall) - 4:23
06. Goodbye (In Memory of Benny) (Jenkins) - 4:23
07. G Song (Bennett) - 4:58
08. In the Morning (Ives) - 2:34
09. Viderunt Omnes (Perotin) - 2:09
10. Serenity (Ives) - 2:54
11. New York Counterpoint (Reich) - 11:39





Richard Stoltzman - clarinet, vocal percussion (#9)
Gary Burton - vibraphone, marimba
Eddie Gomez - bass
Danny Gottlieb - drums
Chuck Loeb - guitar
Jeremy Wall - keyboards
Bill Douglas - keyboards (#3,10,14), vocal percussion (#9)
Cafe - percussion

Recorded at Bear Tracks Studio, Suffern, NY.

Track List:
01. Tempo Feliz (Powell-DeMoraes) - 4:48
02. Anima (Nascimento-Renato) - 4:04
03. Sons of the Black Swan (Villa-Lobos) - 3:28
04. Orixa (Wall) - 5:24
05. Nacao (Bosco-Blanc-Emilio) - 5:01
06. Tristeza (Villa-Lobos) - 3:20
07. Modinha (Villa-Lobos) - 3:00
08. Urubamba (Allen) - 4:01
09. It's Here! (Douglas) - 4:02
10. Primeira Luz (Douglas) - 3:12
11. Ana Maria (Shorter) - 6:07
12. Pavane (Faure) - 5:29
13. Nos Padre (The Lord's Prayer) (Malotte) - 3:46
14. Dawn (Douglas) - 4:59





Again working with pianist/arranger Bill Douglas, Richard Stoltzman concentrates on moving classical music into new age territory on Open Sky. It's not that different from his average release, but it does have a more meditative quality which is quite appealing. ~ AllMusic Review by Rodney Batdorf

Richard Stoltzman - clarinet
Bill Douglas - piano, electric piano, bassoon
Jeremy Wall - synthesizers
Eddie Gomez - bass
with special guests:
Gary Burton - vibraphone, marimba
Cafe, Glen Velez, Dave Samuels - percussion
Dave Carpenter - bass
Danny Gottlieb, Dave Miller - drums
Chuck Loeb - guitar
David Rickenberg, Frank Tiberi - clarinet
Joel Weiskopf - electric piano
Nancy Allen - harp

Recorded at Bear Tracks Studios, Suffern, NY and New York in 1985-1993.

Track List:
01. Begin Sweet World (3:16)
02. Everywhere (5:09)
03. Waltz for Woody (4:40)
04. It's Here (4:00)
05. Flower (5:02)
06. Clouds (4:59)
07. Full Moon (3:47)
08. Primeira Luz (3:11)
09. Sky (4:06)
10. Open Sky (4:36)
11. Infant Dreams (3:40)
12. Feast (4:52)
13. Innisfree (3:15)
14. Morning Song (2:35)





"Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman straddles the worlds of jazz and classical music, his solos demonstrating an accomplished virtuosity regardless of the performance context. Stoltzman is equally at home fronting a full symphony orchestra or a small chamber music ensemble, playing swinging traditional jazz or his own soothing, new-age-tinged brand of chamber jazz. Over the course of his long career, Stoltzman has primarily endeavored to break down boundaries between audiences, bringing jazz to classical fans and vice versa.

Richard Stoltzman was born in Omaha, NE, in 1942 to a father who played the saxophone. He grew up in San Francisco and Cincinnati, and pursued degrees in music and math at Ohio State; he earned his music master's at Yale and studied for his doctorate at Columbia. Stoltzman began to make his name as a professional through Vermont's chamber-music-oriented Marlboro Music Festival, where he debuted in 1967 (the first of ten straight appearances) and began making the contacts that would lead him to co-found the chamber ensemble TASHI in 1973.

In the years that followed, Stoltzman achieved a number of firsts: he performed the first clarinet recitals ever held at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall; he was the first performer to feature jazz in a program at Wagner's legendary Bayreuth Opera House; and he became the first wind player to win the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 1986. He appeared as a soloist with a number of major symphonies, and also performed at international jazz festivals, as well as with jazz and pop stars Mel Tormé, George Shearing, Judy Collins, Woody Herman, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, and the Canadian Brass, among others. In the early '90s, Stoltzman began commissioning and premiering new works for clarinet, and was also featured in the BBC's acclaimed 1993 series Concerto!, performing Aaron Copland's "Clarinet Concerto" with the London Symphony Orchestra. Through most of the '90s, Stoltzman recorded for RCA Victor, blending jazz, classical, and new age sounds, and frequently working with pianist/arranger Bill Douglas; Begin Sweet World was his artistic breakthrough and most popular recording."

All compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Arranged by Jeremy Wall.

Recorded on August 9-11, 1999, at BearTracks Recording Studios, Suffern, NY.

Producer: Jeremy Wall
Recording Engineer: Larry Swist
Executive Producer: Steven Gates

Personnel:
Richard Stoltzman — clarinet
Gary Burton — vibraphone, marimba
Peter John Stoltzman — piano
Jeremy Wall — keyboards
Romero Lubambo — guitar
Paul Meyers — guitar
Eddie Gomez — bass
Cyro Baptista — percussion

Track List:
01. Maidens Awake — (Samba)
02. Minuet Bossa — (Nova)
03. Siciliano Intro — (Spanish)
04. Siciliano — (Afro-Cuban)
05. Priceless Treasure — (Tango)
06. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring — (West African)
07. Invention — (Flamenco)
08. Fugue in C Minor — (Calypso)
09. Ave Maria — (Samba)
10. Sheep May Safely Graze — (Bolero)
11. Arioso — (Gospel)
12. Prelude in E — (West African)
13. Courante — (Jazz)
14. Air — (Bossa Nova)



All thanks go to the apollo, emule, lennybreau, barin99

More Music in My Blog
Follow My RSS Channel