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Comes on vinyl LP. Includes signed limited edition signed lithograph by Jon Batiste.
It doesnโt take long for Jon Batiste to yank Ludwig Van from the Romantic-era parlors of Vienna to the red-light dens of Storyville. Just six seconds, to be exact, into this album centering on Batisteโs solo piano interpretations/interpolations of Beethoven pieces. Thatโs when he slides from the familiar lilt of Fรผr Elise into a frisky, blue-notes-laced run with such elegance and grace that even the maestro himself would be delighted.Jon Batiste
Itโs the first of many delights, surprises and masterful turns. โSymphony No. 5 Stompโ takes the da-da-da-DUH into Cosimoโs J&M Studioโyou can practically hear the drum part Earl Palmer would have played. Batiste himself letโs out a โwhoop!โ toward the end. With the โMoonlight Sonata Bluesโ he coaxes the blues from the original as if it was always there in the shadows and we simply couldnโt hear it. And then he follows that with his own โDusklight Movementโ (one of several inspired-by homages spread out through the album), exploring other shades of day turning to night. The manic frenzy Beethovenโs โWaldsteinโ piano sonata becomes a boogie-woogieโโWaldstein Wobble,โ itโs calledโso suddenly but so naturally that you have to try to remind yourself that Beethoven didnโt write it that way.
These sneak up on you, catch you off guard, make you gasp, make you laugh. The real marvel though, is not in the nimble shifts back and forth of the styles, but how Batiste blends, then braids them, makes them something new, something his. Itโs not a conversation with Beethoven, but more of a melding of the two of them into one. Herr Professor Langhaar.
And these are not gimmicks. These are not novelties. This is about musicality and personalityโtwo things Batiste, of course, has in abundance. He could have second-lined everything. But he didnโt. Not even the second-line stately procession of the Seventh Symphonyโs second movement. Instead, he walks his โ7th Symphony Elegyโ down to the foot of Canal Street, the Euro-gothic of the theme flowing into evocations of American Southern church hymns. Rather than then turning from the sorrow as New Orleans funeral parades do, he let us sit with the feelings, let himself sit with the feelings with a brief visit to his own โAmerican Symphony Themeโ and its mixture of joy and fear seen in last yearโs documentary as he dealt with career pressures and the stresses of his wifeโs serious health issues.
Contemplation? Melancholy? These are Beethoven signatures that Batiste fully embraces. The stomps and boogie-woogies serve as punctuation. Even the short โOde to Joyfulโ turns inward, while โ5th Symphony in Congo Square,โ a second fantasia on the theme, is more of a stroll through the Tremรฉ and its history than a boisterous celebration. The full realization of this comes with the albumโs end sequence. On โLife of Ludwig,โ recapitulates the musical themes heโd already explored, as Beethoven did on his own intro to the Ninthโs chorale movement. That gives way to the albumโs magnum opus, the 15-minute sonata โFรผr Elise โ Reverie.โ Where the album started with a frisky play on the original, this spins off into a somber, inward exploration of lifeโs beauty.
Now, jazzing up classics is hardly unprecedented. The Modern Jazz Quartet swung Bach nicely. Duke Ellington reworked the Nutcracker Suite for big band and B. Bumble and the Stingersโwith Earl Palmer on drumsโscorched those sugar plums with โNut Rocker,โ later revived by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (a different Palmer, of course). Electric Light Orchestra quoted the Fifth in its take on Chuck Berryโs โRoll Over Beethovenโ while Walter Murphyโs โA 5th of Beethovenโ ruled โ70s disco clubs. There are countless others.
Closest to home, many New Orleans pianists have interpolated classical themes in the local vernacular, perhaps most notably James Booker, who regularly riffed on Chopin and Beethoven, including Fรผr Elise, certainly something Batiste was schooled on. But what Batiste has done here is as distinct as it is wonderful. And yes, the album title says โVol. 1โ of his piano series. There is more to come.
(source www.offbeat.com)
Weight | 1 lbs |
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Dimensions | 14 × 14 × 1 in |
Condition | New |
Media | Vinyl |