Jazz has sat at the centre of my musical life for more than 60 years now. I am proud of my attachment to this unique music, its history, culture, language, its radicalism and outsider status, its complexity and its immediacy. Its capacity for constant re-invention. Offering the sounds of surprise in real time whether on the bandstand or in the recording studio. Its continuing impact on other musical forms and the wider culture. Its continuing and global reach. The unique vibe of classic Jazz venues and the unique community of jazz musicians.
However, my musical interests are not exclusively jazz oriented. I have what I would describe as an amateur interest in classical chamber music and have, somewhat surprisingly become a huge fan of live opera.
Chamber music provides equivalent levels of purity and intensity that the best in jazz always offers. I am always struck by the intensity and immediacy of a string quartet where the eye contact between the players is as important as the music on their stands, or more frequently in their heads.
Sir Bryn Terfel
Live opera, particularly the classic 19th century Italian canon offers an unmatchable mix of sensational musicianship, high drama, huge scale, timeless and easily up datable story lines (however absurd) that in the right hands can speak to the culture and politics of today. Performances can transition from a single soloist to a huge chorus both commanding the stage and filling the auditorium. Returning home from a great opera performance with Judith, my wife we remain deeply immersed in what we have just witnessed and discuss the direction, themes, singing and staging well into the night. And as with jazz, contemporary opera productions of classic scores and texts of Verdi, Piccini, Shostakovich or Britten will always offer new perspectives and interpretations, looking forward and back at the same time.
I am very conscious that I experience classical and operatic music in a totally different way than jazz. I am so steeped in jazz that I have to try to resist the temptation -not always successfully- when hearing a new musician or yet another take on All The Things You Are to compare and contrast with other instrumentalists or previous versions. I wish I could hear a new jazz performance for the first time without, to some degree dialling back to how Charlie Parker or John Coltrane or Brad Mehldau showcased the same tune. With classical music every experience feels like a first time, I don’t have the knowledge or back story of a true opera lover and can just let the music flow over me.
I listen to jazz like a professional, to classical music like an amateur.
Lucinda Williams
Over the last 10 years I have been a practitioner playing alto sax in modern jazz gigs at least monthly around London. This has deepened my harmonic and technical understanding of a music that is both deeply complex and, at its best supremely approachable. This is a facility and store of knowledge that I cannot call on when listening to classical music. It enables me to respond to the essence of the music without the need to understand historical precedence or technical underpinnings.
My resolution this year is to try to listen to jazz as if for the first time!
Having said all that last night, I attended a stunning quintet performance led by bassist Niklas Lukassen where all the material was new to me and the levels of interplay and listening particularly between Niklas Lukassen on bass, Jonny Mansfield on vibes and Ant Law on guitar were off the scale. Little chance to categorize or dial back to similar performances lodged in my memory bank.
Gil Scott-Heron
The Playlist
My playlist intersperses choices from a wide range of music that I would describe broadly as Americana interspersed with a Schubert quartet and some landmark opera selections. From late period Johnny Cash and Gil Scott Heron via some gritty country tracks from Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle through to the Fun Loving Criminals.
Both Williams and Earle have distinctively rough-edged voices and poignantly plumb the darker depths of the American dream. Recently Lucinda Willams has been recording and touring with jazz elder and icon Charles Lloyd, and it is fascinating to hear what she brings to Lloyd’s spiritual, chamber jazz.
Recent Comments