Uri Caine, you ask? Not Bud Herseth? Håkan Hardenberger? Maurice André? (insert icon here)
No, Uri Caine. I've been saving this article for a few years with an eye towards using it to discuss music that crosses (or challenges) commonly perceived boundaries.
Please take a look at
http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrech...-uricaine.html and tell me if you've heard Mr. Caine live (I have), own any of his Winter&Winter recordings (I do), or think that he is violating the art of Mahler, Wagner, and others by re-interpreting it in his very individual fashion.
Also, please note that Uri Caine was appointed music director of the highly esteemed Bienalle di Venezia in 2003 (the theme of his directorship was "the relationships between the cultivated Western tradition and jazz, between avant-garde movements, and stylistic and genre overlays"). The late Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, the Salzburger Festspiele, and Milano's Teatro La Scala have all been paying careful attention to his music.
To satisfy your inner geek, Mr. Caine's trumpeters are most often Dave Douglas and/or Ralph Alessi.
Talk with you soon,
EC
"Two people making the same kind of music is one music too many."
-John Cage