Fifty years' worth of history since that time records Powell's defection to the classical side; the onset of muscular dystrophy made touring with a band unthinkable. Then came studies with Paul Hindemith at Yale; founding that school's experimental center for electronic music (one of this country's first); coming West in 1969 to help found the California Institute of the Arts; settling in at CalArts for the next three decades as teacher and morale officer to generations of hopeful young composers. The great thing about Mel's teaching, former students tell me, was his refusal to impose his own stylistic earmarks onto other people's music. The great thing about Mel himself was . . . well, Mel.
There aren't nearly enough recordings. Several of the early Benny Goodman Band reissues have him on piano; he first played with Goodman in 1937, at 14 (as Melvin Epstein). I defy anyone not to fall in love with the fellow who plays (and also composed) the rippling, tickling piece called "The Earl," which comes on a Goodman disc on Sony called Clarinet a la King, Volume 2. A smattering of Mel's chamber music - tight little flickering pieces like intricately carved, iridescent stones - is available, but not, alas, his vocal works, the Haiku Settings and the Little Companion Pieces. His 30-minute, Pulitzer-winning two-piano concerto called Duplicates (available on Harmonia Mundi with several valuable shorter works) accurately measures the wit, the endearing tenderness and the awesome imagination of this man. They won't be easy to replace.
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