Jazzing the Classics

[John Wright]

What do folks here think about the once popular thing, in the 1930s anyway, of jazzing the classics, music arrangements of 'classical' pieces?

In Britain the dance bands often did this and I recently included this recording in a British dance band podcast. My friend 'Panachord' had also put his audio-restoration on youtube:

[Ian Thumwood]

John

I think that this version by Willem Breuker is probably a better interpretation albeit the "jazz" element is pretty much absent. I love Breuker's mash up of 1930's dance music, political pieces and free jazz. This is about as "straight" as they play but this was a band that needed to be caught performing live:-

[John Wright]

Thanks Ian, very much enjoyed that - something I would never find if I didn't post on here

I was impressed by the Teddy Joyce / Bob Busby recording as it's the very first band interpretation of the Prelude - Americans like Teagarden and Barnet made their recordings much later.

But there was an earlier jazzing of the piece, by one of the greats of the 1920's, a solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfloG7qTo_E

[Ian Thumwood]

John

I have the Lang recording in a double CD and was never surprised that Lang had picked this up so quickly as his music was based on a solid understanding of Classical music. He is something of an anomaly - Lang is really a big part of the later 1920's / early 30's scene yet his approach to guitar reached out much further. It was a shame he died so prematurely as it would have been fascinating to see where he ended up musically.

I'm not that much of a fan of Rachmaninoff but can appreciate that anyone coming out of the Chopin tradition is going to have an appeal to jazz musicians purely on the basis of the harmonic language that was being employed. This week I have been listening to Kenny Dorham perform a prelude by Villa- Lobos and the weird thing is that the tune could easily have been one of his own compositions as it no longer sounds like a piece of Classical music. By the 1960's, it was not merely a case of "jazzing the classics" but more of an assimilation. When you encounter "sophisticated" jazz musicians like Lang and Dorham, it is no surprise that the music reaches this point nor that there is an interest beyond the traditional jazz repertoire.

[John Wright]

Ian, again - something I would never find if I didn't post on here

Threads like these remind me that there is sooooo much music around, and that as individuals we will never hear all the music that we might enjoy!

[clive heath]

A movement of Janacek's "In a Mist" has just been played on Radio 3 which reminded me that somebody (Bix?) had done it . I was thinking Bix plus Paul Whiteman maybe, but, no, here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vo12m2cBRo

[Bryn]

The other movements are there too.

[John Wright]

A movement of Janacek's "In a Mist" has just been played on Radio 3 which reminded me that somebody (Bix?) had done it . I was thinking Bix plus Paul Whiteman maybe, but, no, here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vo12m2cBRo

Aaaargh, Janaceck's 'IN THE MISTS' has nothing to do with Bix Beiderbecke's 'In A Mist'

and at least let's hear Bix playing,

[clive heath]

Mea Culpa, John, I was confused by the similarity of titles, having gone on to listen to the genuine Janacek article on you-tube I was beginning to have my own doubts. On topic, wasn't there a jazzy version of the Troika from "Lieutenant Kijé" made in the '60s ?

[Ian Thumwood]

"In a mist" was totally improvised and I believe the music was actually transcribed by Bill Challis, a forward looking arranger who was employed by Paul Whiteman. Beiderbecke is a strange musician as I find his approach to rhythm archaic yet his harmonic palette is years ahead of his time. He was supposed to be improvising using whole tone scales at the age of 16 which would have been around 1919 and nearly thirty years before Monk made this a staple of his improvisatory style. There is a brilliant book called "Remembering Bix" by Ralph Berton who describes the influence his chanson singing brother had on both broadening his interest in the contemporary composers of the day such as Ravel and Poulenc as well as their homosexual affair. The whole book is pretty incredible and captures the excitement of the evolution of jazz in the early twenties as well as giving an impression of how quickly the music seemed to develop. Another brother, Vic, was involved both in jazz and classical music simultaneously and was the "go to" percussionist in those days. Although Bix seemed in thrall of the original, black jazz musicians, it is fascinating to see that there was a close relationship with classical music especially with white musicians who moved around between the two fields or at least had a Classical training. For me, "in a mist" is impressionistic but also the precursor to the kind of music that labels like ECM would eventually release from the 1970's onwards.

[Ian Thumwood]

Of course, when it comes to Russian composers, there are none quite as good as this one whose music becomes a useful vehicle for Chick Corea:-

[Bryn]

Corea's Mozart with Bobby McFerrin is pretty special too:

[Quarky]

What do folks here think about the once popular thing, in the 1930s anyway, of jazzing the classics, music arrangements of 'classical' pieces?

In Britain the dance bands often did this and I recently included this recording in a British dance band podcast. My friend 'Panachord' had also put his audio-restoration on youtube:

There seems something of a trend to Jazz-up Henry Purcell, much to the disgust of the purists;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUGpaSPEjII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwt5iHyShYo

[Ian Thumwood]

I've got a number of L'arpeggiata discs and they are massively good fun. The only one which was a bit below par was the Montiverdi disc but I have heard the Purcell record and agree with Oddball that the critics were wrong with this one. They record a wide range of repertoire but I feel the more obscure stuff that Christina Pluhar unearths are absolutely fascinating. I saw them in concert in Salisbury about ten years ago and thought they were brilliant although wasn't enthused by the dancer who featured. After the gig all the musicians met up with the audience and were very obliging in explaining how the music and their instruments worked. Christina Pluhar was particularly pleasant and you came away with the impression that they have a real passion for this music. I have one disc of theirs with a DVD which includes a number of pieces one of which lumbers under some obscure name but which turns out to be Juan Tizol's "Caravan." I think Pluhar is someone who knows her jazz too.

[clive heath]

Duke Ellington produced two enjoyable jazzing-ups in the stereo era, namely

Nutcracker Suite ( topical, what!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MihqGJ4PkY&list=PLEE9A9CF50F4E1576

and Peer Gynt Suite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mne1rQ0rcw&list=PL8899FC16B99F68D1

however an earlier theft/homage was "Ebony Rhapsody" which you can hear in its 78 version, with vocal by Ivie Anderson, in this selection of Duke numbers

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/transcriptions_01.php

and then you could watch this, which I discovered today and , well, what can I say?...its a little ott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaZNxl7dBoc

The singer in this second version maybe Ivie Anderson but we see somebody else and there is alteration to the 78 lyric. Ivie sings " go to market singing tired hosannas" but on the film "tired" sounds different. Johnny Hodges and the other sax player are staying very calm amid the mayhem.

You can also find Ivie singing "I got it Bad...." in a filmed version not the same as the 78 ( which just happens to be on "Duke3") where the sadness of the song is somewhat undermined by the full-on stagemanship of the pianist.