OK, I found this LP at the bargain bin of my neighborhood record store and it caught my attention; I don't believe I had ever heard of a blues/classical fusion work before. Rock yes, but blues not. And Siegel-Schwall sounded like a random choice for such a work - not highbrow enough, somehow. I got it, then tried to find out more about how it came to be. Apparently, Japanese orchestra maestro Seiji Ozawa actually got the idea of a blues/classical fusion work after seeing Siegel–Schwall Band perform live at a Chicago blues club - so, the band choice was anything but random. He pitched the idea to composer William Russo, who wrote the symphonic parts to Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra as well as broad outlines for the blues parts, to be filled by the band themselves. The work debuted in 1968; at the time, it was an unprecedented combination - the only similarly bold experiment in roughly the same period that I can think of was The Moody Blues' Days Of Future Past (1967). By the advent of prog rock in the early 70's, the combination sounded interesting rather than outlandish, so Siegel-Schwall went into studio to record the piece with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Ozawa himself. Side two featured a different work, Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. The album opens with a minute-long atmospheric intro followed by a blues boogie with beautiful electric guitar; here the orchestra nicely compliments the blues band, which seems to have the upper hand. On "2nd Part", it's the orchestra that dominates. Guitar and piano enter after 3 minutes, and harmonica after 6:30. The playing of the blues band on "3rd Part" is excellent, but for me the piece is somewhat marred by the orchestra occasionally being too loud. While this is quite normal in a symphonic setting, it sounded too bombastic and out of place to my ears compared to the gentleness of the blues band. It makes for an interesting comparison with another, more successful fusion work: more than 20 years later, the same San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Kamen this time, would play a concert with Metallica immortalized in the Metallica S&M DVD and CD. Here the orchestra would never overpower the band, sparring with the powerful metal rockers during the louder parts, and adding drama and nuance to the (relatively) quieter ones. The original LP issue was released by classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, and sold quite well, reaching number 21 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and number 105 on the Billboard Top 200. My 1977 reissue on Polydor is quite different, as side 2 features another Russo composition called Street Music: A Blues Concerto. Taken from a different Deutsche Grammophon LP, this piece was also recorded by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Since Siegel-Schwall had disbanded, it only features Corky Siegel on harmonica and piano. It consists of 4 movements: the first one opens with a mourning harmonica whose sound blends well with the strings; after 3 minutes the symphonic parts takes completely over. To me it sounded like the music of a movie or ballet, going through various moods that seemed to comment on something invisible happening onstage. The "2nd Movement" consists of alternating passages of boogie woogie piano and classical, never really integrating. The combination works better on "3rd Movement", while "4th Movement" starts with an upbeat harmonica intro, followed by classical segment, then a segment with nice harmonica/orchestra interplay, and ends with a bombastic symphonic coda. As a whole, I find "Street Music" rather less engaging, as I missed the blues guitar, but Corky Siegel's performance on harmonica is insanely good. He convinced me for the first time that this "humble" yet versatile and very expressive instrument actually has a place in classical music, which I never would have thought before. To summarize, I thought the blues playing by the band is particularly strong, while the symphonic part sounds great when it blends well with the blues. When it takes over, it sounds just like a random classical piece - or, to be more accurate, like soundtrack music. In any case, an interesting experiment which may sound pompous as an idea but it certainly has its moments.
Three Pieces For Blues Band And Orchestra: 1st Part****, 2nd Part***, 3rd Part***
Street Music: A Blues Concerto 1st Movement***, 2nd Movement**, 3rd Movement***, 4th Movement***
The liner notes, translated from German
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