Search - Fernando Sor, Erik Satie, Johann Kaspar Mertz :: Summertime: Music for Oboe and Guitar

Oboe & Guitar Are A Sublime Combination

C. CRADDOCK | Bakersfield | 09/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was trying to find this music for a long time. They play it on the local NPR station, KVPR in Bakersfield and Fresno, as background for the Community Calendar. I was going to call a DJ, or e-mail someone, but would hardly know what to say. How can you describe instrumental music in words well enough so that someone will know what piece you are talking about?



I found it tonight, in a roundabout way. Someone I know from the park where I walk my dogs said her brother was a friend of Al Kooper. She said he was getting a lot of money in royalties because Paul Schaefer, on the Letterman show, was doing a bit where he would sing a song, get very worked up, and then they would throw a cape over him, A La James Brown. He would start to leave, but would throw off the cape and rush back. Paul was doing the bit night after night. She said that Al Kooper wrote the song, but I said it had to be James Brown, Live at the Apollo. But I was wrong. The bit was Brown, but the song was Kooper. Her brother said that the song was called "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know." I found Al Kooper's website, and it said that he wrote a song with that title that was performed by Donny Hathaway, Kevin Mahogany, Carmen McRae, and Blood, Sweat, & Tears.



These Songs for You, Live!

Al's Big Deal/Unclaimed Freight

The Art of Carmen McRae/For Once in My Life

Portrait of Kevin Mahogany



When I found the song on the BS&T album, Child Is Father to the Man, there was also something called Gymnopedie No. 1 by Erik Satie. When I listened to the sample, I knew it was the elusive NPR piece, but of course not the arrangement I sought.



So I searched for Erik Satie, but all the versions of it were piano, and the one I heard on the radio sounded like guitar and oboe. Finally, I searched for Erik Satie oboe and found it!!!



Summertime: Music for Guitar and Oboe. Simon Wynberg plays guitar and John Anderson plays oboe and cor anglais, splendidly, I might add. "Summertime" is the familiar Gershwin number from Porgy & Bess: High Performance. Done with guitar and oboe, it sounds especially good. The complete list of cuts is as follows:



La Romanesca for guitar & violin composed by Fernando Sor

Gymnopedie for piano No.1 composed by Erik Satie

Gnossienne, for piano No.1 composed by Erik Satie

Barden-klänge (30), for guitar, Op. 13 No. 1. An die Entfernte composed by Johann Kaspar Mertz

Barden-klänge (30), for guitar, Op. 13 No. 3. An Malvina composed by Johann Kaspar Mertz

Distribuiçao de flôres (Distribution of Flowers), for flute & guitar, A. 381 composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Porgy and Bess, opera Summertime composed by George Gershwin

Entr'acte, for flute (or violin) & harp (or guitar) (from "Le médecin de son honneur") composed by Jacques Ibert

Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, for organ in C major, BWV 564 (BC J36) Adagio composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Les Regrets for oboe & guitar, Op 36 composed by Napoleon Coste

Marche funebre pour harpolyre composed by Fernando Sor

Variations (6), Op. 42 composed by Johann Baptist Vanhal



Just to bring it back to the Al Kooper connection, I noticed he had a list of his 100 favorite recordings on his website, and on the list at #94 was another oboe CD that I also possessed:



94. Debussy: Music for Oboe and Harp

Great picks of composer's catalogue and tasteful duet arrangements - one of the most soothing CDs ever issued - these two instruments make great bedfellows...



I bet that Al Kooper would enjoy Summertime: Music for Guitar and Oboe, as well.



One last tidbit of Al Kooper trivia: he played French Horn on Let It Bleed [DSD] with The Rolling Stones, as well as organ on "Like a Rolling Stone" with Bob Dylan on Highway 61 Revisited.

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