Bach Jazz

No composer looms over modern jazz quite like Johann Sebastian Bach, whose harmonic rigour seems to have provided the basis for bebop and all that followed. Listen to the endlessly mutating semiquavers tumbling from Charlie Parker’s saxophone and it could be the top line of a Bach fantasia; the jolting cycle of chords in John Coltrane’s Giant Steps could come straight from a Bach fugue and Bach’s contrapuntal techniques crop up in countless jazz pianists, from Bill Evans to Nina Simone. Bach certainly casts a long shadow over US pianist Brad Mehldau: even when he’s gently mutilating pieces by Radiohead, Nick Drake or the Beatles, he sounds like Glenn Gould ripping into the Goldberg Variations. Which is why it comes as no surprise to see Mehldau recording an entire album inspired by Bach. However, this is not a jazz album. Instead of riffing on Bach themes, as the likes of Jacques Loussier or the Modern Jazz Quartet have done in the past, After Bach sees Mehldau using Bach’s methodology. Mehldau plays five of Bach’s canonic 48 Preludes and Fugues, each followed by his own modern 21st-century response.

John Lewis - J.S.Bach - Preludes & Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (1998) {4CD Set, Philips PHCE-12001~04 rec 1984-1989}
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© 1984-89, 1998 Philips / Mercury Music Japan | PHCE-12001~04
Jazz / Classical / Cool / Baroque / Piano

When Wynton Marsalis made a splash as a jazz musician playing classical music, record companies sensed a winning formula. It's still nearly impossible to get an original jazz composition recorded, but all of a sudden jazz musicians have been offered the run of the Baroque and Classical repertory, ready or not. Amid the follow-the-leader frenzy, one of the more promising projects was an album of J. S. Bach pieces played by the Modern Jazz Quartet's pianist, John Lewis. Bach's contrapuntal thinking, and the strong sense that his compositions are frozen improvisations, have made him a consistent favorite of jazz composers, while the walking bass lines of many Bach pieces have encouraged jazz musicians through the years to ''swing'' Bach, an adaptation that often works surprisingly well.

The Jazz Club series is an attractive addition to the Verve catalogue. With it's modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the Jazz Club is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music.
An acclaimed French pianist known for his jazz interpretations of classical works, Jacques Loussier rose to prominence leading his trio in the 1960s. A gifted classical musician in his youth, Loussier gravitated toward jazz and issued a series of innovative, genre-bending albums under the Play Bach title in which he reworked the music of Johanne Sebastian Bach…

Deutsche Grammophon and Decca have announced the release of the largest and most complete box set ever devoted to the work of a single composer with Bach 333 – a 222 CD box set – which is released worldwide on 26 October in two language versions, English and German. The flagship Edition is accompanied by a 2CD entry level product, Peaceful Bach, and a suite of 13 digital products including all aimed at achieving the widest possible awareness and engagement. Listen to new recordings of rare jazz interpretations of Bach classics.

The Classical Jazz Quartet Kenny Barron on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Stefon Harris on vibraphone and marimba, and Lewis Nash on drums seems to begin where the Modern Jazz Quartet of the 1950s left off, right down to the CJQ initials that seem to evoke memories of the earlier group. Bach was the staple of the classical-music treatments the MJQ released.