Lutes

This article on lutes is from the atlaas of plucked instruments here.

Lutes belong to the oldest plucked instruments. Lute-like instruments have been found in archeological remains in the Middle East and the Far East from as long as 4000 years ago. 

In Europe lutes were the most popular instruments for a few hundred years, especially from 1400 to 1800. This can be seen from the large volume of books and manuscripts from that period. 

The lute (both the instrument and the name) derives from the Arabian lute, the Ud("El Ud" - or Oud), which is still much played (see Middle East). The instrument probably reached West Europe from the Middle East via the Moors in Spain, or was brought home by the Crusadors.

Music for it was always written in tablature - a way of music notation specially for plucked stringed lute-like instruments, where not the pitch is notated, but which string on which fret has to be plucked. Several different systems were in use (Spanish, French, Italian and the most complicated: German), but all on the same basis: string + fret.

The lute era ended around 1750, when music (especially Bach's) became too complicated to be played by non-professionals on the lute, and was played more easily on keyboard instruments, like the then popular harpsichord and pianoforte.

The number of strings on a lute slowly increased from about four courses on early medieval lutes to theorbe lutes with many extra bass strings, fitted to extra long necks, reaching finally a total of 14 (double) courses, or 26 strings in total. Since the Middle Ages there were always double strings in a course.

Complete Jan Akkerman Box Set

A box set containing 26 albums (nearly everything but not including Live at the Priory or his album with Joachim Kuhn, etc) has now been released. It is a nicely produced set worth having if you are a completist. Jan has provided brief notes on each album. Tabernakel is the third disc in the package.

Akkerman talks about the album

David Bowie on the night in question

For the recently published Box Set of Akkerman albums Jan has commented on each of the albums for a booklet that accompanies the 26 discs. On Tabernakel he has written

This album proved a great opportunity. Producer Geoffrey Haslam introduced me to arranger George Flynn insisting "Jan, he's your man". Thanks to Atlantic boss Ahmet Ertugun, engineer Gene Les Paul (son of) and the New York Philharmonic came on board. We made the album in a week.(1)  From my perspective, new instruments such as Moog synthesizers (2) in the seventies marked a musical renaissance. I wanted to connect the modern with traditional lute music and that was the general philosophy behind Tabernakel. Once I'd discovered old Mediaeval lute material and Julian Bream's work (3), I immediately went to Cambridge University to make photocopies of the tablatures (4). I only found out later that I could have bought them at Schott's music on Great Marlborough Street in London! (5) At the time I couldn't incorporate any lute playing in Focus so I recorded it for my third solo record instead. To record the lute, Gene plastered the instrument with so many Barcus Berry pick-ups (6) (purchased at Mannys in NYC (7)) that consequently it looked like a hospital patient! I knew Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge (8) and they were great guys to record with and understood exactly how I wanted to do things.

House of the King was done on the Coral electric sitar, (9) an instrument I discovered in the States in early 1973, and I use a genuine sitar on the record

Javeh, (10) the Jewish name for the Lord, came to me while staring upon the wide landscape of Friesland where I was living at the time. The piece starts a little restlessly but turns into an impressionistic and calm piece. In February 1974, I wanted to perform Javeh at the prestigious Grand Gala du Disque (the Dutch equivalent of the grammys) (11) and invited George Flynn to assist the orchestra with the arrangements. The performance, which was performed live on television, didn't go to plan and I decided to play solo. After the first few bars, I felt uncomfortable and decided to walk away. This happened in front of David Bowie and other celebrities (12), but I've never regretted it for a moment.

(1) Sounds like a slight exaggeration but maybe not

(2) See Wikipedia article on the Moog here

(3) See Wikipedia on Julian Bream here

(4) These days the tablatures from Cambridge are online. See here.

(5) See here

(6) In 1963, experiments initiated by violinist John Berry and electronics visionary Les Barcus, gave birth to the first ever piezo crystal transducer for musical instruments. Many further innovations have been made since. For more, see here.

(7) There from 1935-2009. See this Wikipedia article here.

(8) See Wikipedia article here

(9) See an article on the Coral here

(10) See Wikipedia article here

(11) The event on Friday February 15 was the last time the event was televised. For details of the many others performing that day see here.

(12) David Bowie is not listed above but he is mentioned here on Wikipedia.

Instruments used on the album

Trumpeters

Joseph (Benjamin) Wilder (1922–2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer. Wilder was awarded the Temple University Jazz Master's Hall of Fame Award in 2006. The National Endowment for the Arts honoured him with its highest honour in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 2008.

Wilder was born into a musical family led by his father Curtis, a bassist and bandleader in Philadelphia. Wilder's first performances took place on the radio program, Parisian Tailor's Colored Kiddies of the Air. He and the other young musicians were backed by such illustrious bands as Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's that were also then playing at the Lincoln Theater. Wilder studied at the Mastbaum School of Music in Philadelphia but turned to jazz when he felt that there was little future for an African-American classical musician. At the age of 19, he joined his first touring big band, Les Hite's Band.

Wilder was one of the first thousand African Americans to serve in the Marines during World War II. He worked first in Special Weapons and eventually became Assistant Bandmaster at the headquarters' band. Following the war during the 1940s and early 50s, he played in the orchestras of Jimmie Lunceford, Herbie Fields, Sam Donahue, Lucky Millinder, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie and finally with the Count Basie Orchestra.

From 1957 to 1974, he did studio work for ABC-TV, New York City, and in the pit orchestras for Broadway musicals, while building his reputation as a soloist with his albums for Savoy (1956) and Columbia (1959). His Jazz from Peter Gunn (1959), features ten songs from Henry Mancini ("Peter Gunn") TV score in melodic and swinging fashion with a quartet. He was also a regular sideman with such musicians as NEA Jazz Masters Hank Jones, Gil Evans and Benny Goodman. He became a favourite with vocalists and played for Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, Eileen Farrell, Tony Bennett, etc.

Wilder earned a BM degree in 1953, studying classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music with Joseph Alessi, where he was also principal trumpet with the school's symphony orchestra under conductor Jonel Perlea. In the 1960s, he performed on several occasions with the New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostelanetz and Pierre Boulez and played lead for the Symphony of the New World 1965-1971. He appeared on The Cosby Show episode "Play It Again, Russell" (1986) and played the trumpet in the Malcolm X Orchestra in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). Since 1991 he returned as a leader and recorded three albums for Evening Star. He died May 9, 2014, in New York City, of congestive heart failure.

Alan Rubin (1943–2011), also known as Mr Fabulous, was an American musician who played trumpet, flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet. Rubin was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was a member of the Saturday Night Live Band, with whom he played at the Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games. As a member of The Blues Brothers, he portrayed Mr Fabulous in the 1980 film, the 1998 sequel and was a member of the touring band. Rubin played with an array of artists, such as Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington, Blood Sweat and Tears, Gil Evans, Eumir Deodato, Sting, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Frankie Valli, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, B B King, Miles Davis, Yoko Ono, Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and Dr John. Rubin died from lung cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Best ever albums

According to best ever abums Tabernakel is Jan Akkerman's third greatest album.

Flutes

Albert Block (1926-2015) A wonderful woodwind doubler, Al had a distinguished career having played with the Sauter-Finegan Band, Benny Goodman, Boyd Raeburn, Artie Shaw, Raymond Scott, among many other big bands. He also participated in several legendary recordings including the Miles Davis/Gil Evans Sketches of Spain and Charlie Parker and Voices; played in numerous Broadway shows including the original productions of West Side Story, Gypsy, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, La Cage Aux Folles, etc; and was regarded as one of the better flute doublers of his generation. Al’s career was a successful one but not radically different from many of his New York colleagues who came along during the last great heyday of the music and recording industry in the 1950s/1960s. Beyond his musical prowess, what distinguished him was his ability to revel in the musical development of younger players and colleagues and to support them in any way possible. He loved being around up and coming doublers, especially those who played flute well and with a classical approach. He would often go to The Juilliard School (not far from his apartment) to hear the flute students give recitals. He was the third husband of singer Marni Nixon from 1983.

Daniel Waitzman (b 1943) is an American flutist and composer. Born in Rochester, New York, Waitzman grew up in New York City, where he graduated from the High School of Music and Art in 1961. At Columbia College (B.A. 1965), he majored in Music. He received his MA in Musicology from Columbia University in 1968. He studied recorder with Bernard Krainis, Baroque Flute with Claude Monteux and Paul Ehrlich and modern flute with Samuel Baron, Harold Bennett, and Harry Moskovitz. He studied composition with Otto Luening, harmony and counterpoint with Charles Walton, Genevieve Chinn and Peter Westergaard, orchestration with Howard Shanet and musicology with Paul Henry Lang.
His professional career began in 1959, when he made the first of several recordings with his teacher, Bernard Krainis, at the age of 15. In 1962, he recorded a Frescobaldi Canzona with Krainis and lutenist Joseph Iodine on the Baroque one-keyed flute. This performance appeared on a recording entitled The Virtuoso Recorder. In 1965, he had a bell key (originally invented by Carl Dolmetsch) fitted to his recorder; and he began to develop a new technique for playing the bell-keyed recorder.He arranged three of J.S. Bach’s Organ Trio Sonatas for bell-keyed recorder and harpsichord,[9] and also arranged Bach’s E Major Violin Concerti for bell-keyed recorder and strings.
It was around this time that he became dissatisfied with the early music movement’s philosophical approach to the performance of the older repertoire, and also with the limitations of the one-keyed “Baroque” flute. Later, he published several critiques of the modern early music movement, including a book entitled Up from Authenticity, or How I Learned to Love the Metal Flute—A Personal Memoir. The original essay on which this book was based served as the subject for a feature article in The New York Times in 1990.
In 1971, Waitzman acquired an antique conical Boehm flute built ca. 1875 by Louis Lot. That same year, he made his formal début in Carnegie Recital Hall as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award, at which he performed on recorder, Baroque flute and conical Boehm flute. He has taught flute and recorder at Queens College, CUNY, and at Hofstra University.
In 1973-74, he persuaded the brothers Bickford and Robert Brannen to revive the manufacture of conical Boehm flutes. This project led to the establishment of the flute-making firm of Brannen Brothers. By 1976 Waitzman became convinced that it was possible to play the modern flute in a manner consistent with the aesthetic requirements of the older repertoire, using a type of embouchure very close to that of Boehm, the original inventor of the modern flute. He established himself as a performer on modern flute, and gave numerous recitals illustrating the history of the flute.
He has toured the USA and Canada as soloist and chamber musician. In 1976, he performed several of Vivaldi’s Piccolo Recorder concerti with Amor Artis at Alice Tully Hall. He has served as soloist and chamber musician on flutes and recorders with The Long Island Baroque Ensemble since 1974, and performed several concerts with the Bach Aria Group, including a Telemann Concerto for Recorder and Flute (with his teacher, flutist Samuel Baron).
In 1978, he published The Art of Playing the Recorder, a codification of the technique of both bell-keyed and keyless recorders. He had tried to convince recorder makers to offer a series of bell-keyed recorders expressly designed to take advantage of the bell key and had suggested that they undertake the development of a modernised recorder; and their failure to do so caused him to turn more and more to the Boehm flute, in both their conically-and cylindrically-bored forms, as his primary instrument.
In 1980, he was awarded an International Bach Society Performance Award. In 1987, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship Grant to give a recital in New York’s Alice Tully Hall. After pondering the current state of contemporary music, and the history of music since the Enlightenment, Waitzman turned his attention to the composition of new music in 1992, in the belief that a revival of what he considered the aesthetic ideals and highly affective approach of the old masters was long overdue.

Harold Bennett (1944-1985) Harold Bennett was principal flutist for the Metropolitan Opera orchestra from 1944 until his retirement in 1965. Raised in Wyoming, he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1935. For the next two years, he was first flautist of the National Symphony in Washington. He went on to play first flute in the Radio City Music Hall orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and, from 1940 to 1944, assistant first flute and piccolo in the Philadelphia Orchestra alongside his teacher, William Kincaid. Bennett also had an extensive teaching career, and joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 1962.

Walter Kane Bassoon

Wally Kane (1933-2021) was a saxophone player (along with other reed instruments) who was part of the original house band for Sesame Street organised by Joe Raposo. He has been heard on the show and in countless records over the years. He was still part of the band as late as 2007. He also performed tenor sax on longtime Street colleague Jerry Nelson's album Truro Daydreams (2009). Kane has been a jazz and pop musician whose credits include a stint with Doc Severinsen on The Tonight Show, backing Roberta Flack on recordings and the original soundtrack to The Wiz.

Phil Bodner Oboe

Philip L Bodner (1919 - 2008) was an American multi-instrumentalist and studio musician, active in jazz and popular music idioms. Best known as a reedist, he played clarinet, saxophone, oboe, English horn and flute. He was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and played in the 1940s and 1950s as a sideman for studio recordings in New York City; he did jazz sessions with Benny Goodman in 1958 and with Miles Davis and Gil Evans in 1958. He organised The Brass Ring, a group modeled after Herb Alpert, which had popular success in the mid-1960s, and also played with Oliver Nelson and J J Johnson in that decade. Associations in the 1970s included Oscar Peterson, Yusef Lateef, Peanuts Hucko, Wild Bill Davison and Ralph Sutton. Bodner also played the signature piccolo part on the international disco hit "The Hustle" by Van McCoy. He worked in a swing style with Marty Napoleon, Mel Lewis and George Duvivier in the 1980s, and also played with Maxine Sullivan and Barbara Carroll. He released an album under his own name, Jammin' at Phil's Place, on Jazzmania Records in 1990, with Milt Hinton, Bobby Rosengarden and Derek Smith as sidemen. Other work in the 1970s included playing with Ralph Sutton and Johnny Varro, working with Mingus Epitaph, and arranging Louie Bellson's tribute to Duke Ellington Black, Brown and Beige.

Charles Russo Clarinet

One of the premier clarinetists of his time, Charles Russo (1936-2013) was a distinguished soloist, chamber artist and orchestral musician who played in countless performances, TV broadcasts and recordings. Many of these were historic performances, such as Pablo Casals’s US appearance at the 25th anniversary of the United Nations, with Luciano Pavarotti as part of the 100th telecast of Live from Lincoln Center, and as soloist in Morton Gould’s Derivations for Solo Clarinet for the Aaron Copland tribute.

Russo was a guest artist and soloist with some of the country’s leading string quartets, chamber ensembles and orchestras, including the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Emerson String Quartets, New School Concerts, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor and the New York Chamber Symphony.

He also given much 20th-century music its first hearing, both on recordings and in prestigious series and venues for contemporary repertoire. A Grammy nominee, Russo was involved in more than 100 recordings on nearly a dozen labels, from chamber music to full orchestral works.

His critically acclamied CD recordings, released on the Premier Label, include Music for Clarinet and Strings and Strings and Clarinet Allo Cinema. In the Fall of 2004 his recordings of the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Weber were released on the Helicon label.

He performed and recorded with many of the world’s greatest composers and conductors, including Stravinsky, Copland, Stokowski and Bernstein; as well as scores of renowned performers including Arthur Rubinstein, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern and Beverly Sills.

In his teaching and master classes across the country, he had an important influence on many young musicians. He served on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music for more than 25 years and also taught at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

Other appointments were on the faculties of Yale, Vassar and the New England Conservatory of Music.

Russo was also the founder and artistic director of Le Mont Chamber Music Seminar in Nyack, New York.