About the album
Classical/pop, rock/classical, classical/jazz, fusion: the list of possible crossovers can get very long. What all these couplings have in common is the desire to blend two or more different languages. It is a bit like triggering a chemical reaction, the outcome of which no longer has anything to do with the original components of the reaction itself. In the more specific field of jazz/classical music crossover, the 1920s were crucial. In fact, they gave us one of the first, absolutely extraordinary, works of the genre: the famous “Rhapsody in Blue.” In this masterpiece, Gershwin achieved exceptional results thanks to his merging of elements from American popular music, particularly the blues, with others typical of the European classic tradition.
John Lewis moved in the same direction as Gershwin, but from a very different vision and experience. Indeed, Lewis was an excellent jazz pianist (it’s enough to think of his collaborations with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis) where Gershwin, who was also a phenomenal pianist and very well-versed in the jazz of his time, was strictly speaking never a full-time jazz pianist. But above all Lewis, besides being a great jazz player, was deeply in love with the music of Bach and from the earliest years of his career onward made the blues/Bach pair the banner of his artistic life. The Modern Jazz Quartet, which he founded in 1952 – for nearly half a century one of the most celebrated groups on the international jazz scene was the unmistakable vehicle of his musical conception and the real workshop of his highly original crossover.
It is to this musical conception and to the compositional art of John Lewis that, a little more than two decades after his passing, “Blues and Bach” wishes to pay tribute. His tunes have been reworked and orchestrated for the occasion with an ensemble that, in some ways, is itself a crossover within a crossover (jazz trio plus string quintet and woodwind quintet).
As a final thought, we would like to add that “Blues and Bach” is a kind of documentation in music of our two musical biographies. Indeed, encountering blues and Bach were fundamental experiences for both of us, and it is precisely thanks to John Lewis’ dream of blending two musical worlds so far apart that these experiences have been happily brought together here.
Klassik/Pop, Rock/Klassik, Klassik/Jazz, Fusion: Die Liste der möglichen Kreuzungen kann sehr lang werden.
Allen diesen Verbindungen gemeinsam ist der Wunsch, zwei oder mehr verschiedene Sprachen zu vermischen. Es ist ein bisschen so, als würde man eine chemische Reaktion auslösen, deren Ergebnis nichts mehr mit den ursprünglichen Bestandteilen der Reaktion selbst zu tun hat.
Auf dem speziellen Gebiet des Crossover zwischen Jazz und klassischer Musik waren die 1920er Jahre entscheidend. Sie haben uns eines der ersten, absolut außergewöhnlichen Werke dieses Genres beschert: die berühmte "Rhapsody in Blue". In diesem Meisterwerk erzielte Gershwin außergewöhnliche Ergebnisse, da er Elemente der amerikanischen Populärmusik, insbesondere des Blues, mit anderen, für die europäische
klassischen Tradition.
John Lewis bewegte sich in dieselbe Richtung wie Gershwin, jedoch mit einer ganz anderen Vision und Erfahrung. Lewis war in der Tat ein hervorragender Jazzpianist (man denke nur an seine Zusammenarbeit mit Charlie Parker und Miles Davis), während Gershwin, der ebenfalls ein phänomenaler Pianist war und den Jazz seiner Zeit sehr gut kannte, streng genommen nie ein Vollzeit-Jazzpianist war. Vor allem aber war Lewis nicht nur ein großartiger Jazzer, sondern auch tief in die Musik Bachs verliebt und machte von den ersten Jahren seiner Karriere an die Verbindung von Blues und Bach zum Banner seines künstlerischen Lebens. Das von ihm 1952 gegründete Modern Jazz Quartet - fast ein halbes Jahrhundert lang eine der gefeiertsten Gruppen der internationalen Jazzszene - war das unverwechselbare Vehikel seines musikalischen Konzepts und die eigentliche Werkstatt
seines höchst originellen Crossovers.
Diesem musikalischen Konzept und der kompositorischen Kunst von John Lewis möchte "Blues and Bach" nun, etwas mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte nach seinem Tod, Tribut zollen. Seine Stücke wurden für diesen Anlass überarbeitet und mit einem Ensemble instrumentiert, das in gewisser Weise selbst ein Crossover innerhalb eines Crossovers ist (Jazztrio plus Streichquintett und Holzbläserquintett).
Abschließend möchten wir anmerken, dass "Blues und Bach" eine Art musikalische Dokumentation unserer beiden musikalischen Biografien ist. Tatsächlich waren die Begegnungen mit Blues und Bach für uns beide grundlegende Erfahrungen, und es ist gerade dem Traum von John Lewis zu verdanken, zwei so weit voneinander entfernte musikalische Welten zu verschmelzen, dass diese Erfahrungen hier auf glückliche Weise zusammengeführt wurden.
Enrico Pieranunzi & Michele Corcella
Press
In its best moments, the Italian pianist’s tribute to the American classical-jazz pioneer is breathtaking
The Guardian, 04-2-2023
... Here Pieranunzi plays freely, and his solos are fiery fiery and inspired. The interplay between controlled classical music and the outbreak into jazzy passages,
in swing, that works but also in this constellation...
Westfälischer Anzeiger, 13-2-2023
... A luxuriant small orchestra plays around, accompanies refined or steps into the background, when the trio vehemently turns up the volume...
NaDann, 10-2-2023
... a more expansive sound than the MJQ originals, though generally complementing rather than overwhelming Lewis's compositions, and with some startlingly empathetic orchestral responses to the jazz trio.
The Scotsman, 10-2-2023
In its best moments, the Italian pianist's tribute to the American classical-jazz pioneer is breathtaking.
The Guardian/The Observer, 04-2-2023
... In a way, the result was a crossover within a crossover (jazz trio plus string quintet and woodwind quintet). Ambitious, committed...
Jazzthing, 01-2-2023
Pieranunzi is one of Europe's great jazz pianists, greatly influenced by Bill Evans. His luminous tone and elegant, linear phrasing is a superb foil to the warmth of Corcella's arrangements.
The Times, 18-1-2023
Lewis would have loved to have had an orchestra this well rehearsed and recorded so beautifully.
The Arts Fuse, 12-1-2023
...it is probably safe to say that the odds are that Lewis would enjoy Blues & Bach. The orchestrations bring new facets to the familiar compositions and are as light on their feet as the source material, while Pieranunzi's trio, collectively and as soloists, keeps the music foursquare in the realm of creative jazz.
All About Jazz, 06-1-2023
Ideal chamber jazz sympathetically arranged and interpreted that once again reminds us of just how great a composer John Lewis was and how classics from his songbook are as satisfying and rewarding as anything written today.
Marlbank, 05-1-2023
Like everything Pieranunzi shows on his albums, it is again just enjoying his technically superior but also warm playing that always, and that is most important, carries his personal stamp, pure enjoyment that is the adage that can be said about this music.
Rootstime, 01-12-2022