Jan Akkerman and Claus Ogerman – Aranjuez

Canard

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Every so often I force myself to go to the wall of vinyl, randomly choose a shelf and section, place my palm on an area in that section, and then choose an album from under the area of my palm. The choice must be an album that hasn’t seen the light of day in decades.

Today’s choice was Jan Akkerman and Claus Ogerman’s Aranjuez – Akkerman is most famous in North America for his involvement the Dutch group, Focus and their hit, Hocus Pocus.

Aranjuez is both a great album and a so-so album. It is great because it shows off Akkerman’s considerable skills as a single note soloist – no effects, clean electric guitar sound, simple melodic lines (nowhere to hide bad technique) punctuated by pyrotechnic flourishes. It is a so-so album because Akkerman is not Miles Davis and because Ogerman is not Gil Evans. But Ogerman is more not Gil Evans than Akkerman is not Miles Davis. Orgerman’s orchestrations are lush but somewhat pastel and flat (in terms of colour), very much lacking in vibrancy – they are a lot like really competent but unobtrusive sound track music – very pleasant if you are not really listening to it. Also it sounds like Akkerman was not in the studio with the symphony orchestra. It does not seem that he, Ogerman (the conductor), and the orchestra are working together – no audible evidence of any interaction. It sounds like Akkerman is playing very carefully to an ultra high-end Band in a Box or Cakewalk accompaniment.

Very much worth a listen for Akkerman’s guitar work, though – IMHO.

 
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Canard

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I don't think about age as a thing, and I sometimes forget that not everyone is geriatric like me.

So to make my comments in my post above clear to anyone who can't remember 1960 because they weren't there, I post Miles Davis and Gil Evans' Sketches of Spain below.

Ogerman and Akkerman by doing the adagio from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez set themselves up for a comparison with the very famous Sketches of Spain.

Listen to Evans' brilliant arrangements: the shifting orchestral voices, tones, and timbres; the use of dynamics; and the use of space (in the right context, not playing is musically as strong as playing) - there is so much room for Davis, the soloist. Also Davis is very much playing with the orchestra, responding to them and to Evans, the conductor.

Ogerman drowns Akkerman.

 
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Canard

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A somewhat random selection of Akkerman stuff for anyone interested:







 

Canard

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And I might as well post the beautiful Rodrigo original which is written for guitar.

 

walrus

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I never knew he was in Hocus Pocus until this thread!

Nice version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I'm saving the other videos for later!

walrus
 
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