'cubanpete'...

Norman Granz, the famous 'jazz impressario' who created Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1944, could be cited as one figure in the world of music (along with the advent of long-playing records at the time), who changed the way audiences experienced jazz music performances.

The following article that was published by the New York Times in 2001 on the occasion of his death illuminates his controversial thinking on the matter:

"Mr. Granz also represented stars like Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson and championed their kind of music even though when he began, some critics attacked his musicians and their audiences as ''lower-class swing enthusiasts.'' In all his Jazz at the Philharmonic presentations Mr. Granz emphasized that he wanted no dancing or unruly behavior when the music was played. He wanted people to listen, just as they might listen to Bach or Brahms."

Nonetheless, to his significant credit, he fought REALLY fiercely against the 'Jim Crow' mentality of that time by insisting that African-American musicians and vocalists "be treated with the same respect as Leonard Bernstein or (Jascha) Heifetz because they were just as good," he said, "both as men and musicians."

Your composition, Swing a la Calloway, is such an accurately reproduced and swingin' recreation of ballroom swing arrangements of Granz's era that if I didn't know it was you who put it all together, it would be easy for me assume that the 'chart' had been cooked up by any number of the most famous composer/arrangers working back then. It's a truly impressive piece of high-energy jazz music that sounds as though it was recorded before a 'live' audience.

'cubanpete', you da' man, man laugh !!!

Most sincerely,

LOREN

"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".