Babbitt: "All Set"

[eurisko618]

I knew this work very well many years ago, but it somehow left my vast musical memory at least 30 years ago. It's wonderful to hear it again! Very nice performance & recording!

[meepshizzleyams]

i heard this performed live today and it was incredible. the band that played it had such a good time with it that they played it again for their encore!

[seb2112]

anyone can recommend more music like this? Serial music+avant garde jazz

[zachbernst]

@seb2112 Robert Morris's Not Lilacs is pretty good.

[seb2112]

please upload this where it can be downloaded it's not even for sale through itunes! i NEED to get my hands on this

[mtoussieh]

this is AWESOME! Gosh!  And I didn't know he existed except because The New York Times just published he died!!!!! RIP! Sorry about that! (I am an ignorant).

[mtoussieh]

this is AWESOME! Gosh! And I didn't know he existed except because The New York Times just published he died!!!!! RIP! Sorry about that! (I am an ignorant).

[2300skiddo]

Thank you, maestro, and RIP.

[dspaneas]

This is a great recording--I have it, as well.

RIP Milton...

[ytkarl7777]

Oh wow, I haven't heard this in like 40 years. Thanks!

[lovesGenet]

This is beautiful and shows that now is the time of has been for decades a time when set ,derived set,combinatoraility etc. will work in any modern approach . Ellington I hope had some idea this was going on. Others got here it seems without set theory-I may be wrong :Chicagoart Ensembles & others .

[mikern2001]

HE SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH JAZZ.

[hizzogg]

Amazing!!! Sounds like someone took a bunch of high quality jazz and put it through the Babbit Machine. I love it. I wish I could put a few other musical idioms through that machine... maybe Indie Rock, Metal or music from Disney films. If Babbit wasn't such an amazing composer, I'd say an algorithm may be called for.

[MrChirpsky]

This is an incredibly sophisticated and ingenious composition. The performance is absolutely first-rate. Modern music aficionados: Please share this with any jazz-buffs you know (All great music caries the listener into the future through a deft assimilation of esthetically-relevant musical styles & techniques).

[7867088]

@MrChirpsky It´s a shame becaue I don´t understand serial composition (I can´t hear system in composition) but now I´m beginning interest in it.

[Robusto103]

I'm starting to like Babbitt more and more and mooooore!!!!

[tajto]

there are some jazz rhythms in this. i wouldn't say it swings though.

[Drummnmylifeaway]

anyone know who's performing on this recording?

[NewMusicXX]

@Drummnmylifeaway This is the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg, conductor.

[saladshootavvv]

@NewMusicXX Oh awesome! I worked with Arthur Weisberg on an album of some of his chamber works right before he died. A very nice, talented and intelligent man. It's sad to see so many from this generation start to kick the bucket :(

[htapoicos]

I love this piece.

[rickintx1125]

An interesting companion piece to All Set would be Henry Brant's Signs and Alarms. It was released in monoraul by Columbia many decades back. Both pieces share a sympathy with jazz and are brilliant and witty.

[cornicello]

Okay, for all the comments about Babbitt's supposed jazz hatred - sure, I'll admit that he has a bit of the typical Modernist elitism/snobbery, but we're forgetting 2 important things:

1.) MB started out life as a jazz saxophonist (!)

2.) All Set was written for a jazz ensemble - the premiere included people like Bill Evans and Charles Mingus.

[peterkennethsloan]

wow - this is a great performance

[japanesesweet]

'All Set' has a more obvious 12 tone flavour to it than his less explicitly jazz orientated pieces.

Good fun though...

[JeeRant]

Why must Babbitt put everything in "quotes"? It makes him sound just a tad bit "snobbish." He talks about "jazz" like its an "alien life form."

Cool "piece," though.

[DocHou72]

I think he's being sarcastic . . . if you'll notice he's picking on things that he doesn't consider real . . . jazz isn't real 'cause jazz is just a way of making music, music is the only real genre of music and even that is infinite . . . just a thought on what he may have been thinking . . .