Bach as Teacher

I attended Donal's lecture-recital on Wednesday night, entitled "Bach as Teacher: Classical and Jazz." As I looked around Killian Hall, it was interesting to see who attended - there were some faculty I recognized, including a writing professor and her husband (also a jazz double bassist), as well as David Deveau and Marcus. I saw Xiao Xiao and Khoa too.

Donal performed with double bassist John Lockwood, and drummer/percussionist Yoron Israel. As suggested by the title, the recital consisted of jazz pieces inspired by Bach. Donal took a bunch of different Bach pieces - inventions and well-tempered clavier, I think, and took the bass lines and other catchy parts of the pieces and vamped them to form the basic structure of his pieces. This is one idea to hold onto for a potential piece in our final concert for the improv class. This would be one way to blend the classical I'm more used to with unfamiliar territory.

I was really impressed by the percussionist's single solo that evening. It's unusual for me to appreciate percussion because that's an instrument probably the most foreign to me, my instruments being all melodic. Maybe this class has gotten me to think more about rhythm. It's true though, when I think about it - rhythm can completely change the effect of a piece of music, and is at least as important as the notes. Just imagine the Star-Spangled Banner in triplets or something - that would completely ruin its stateliness. In general just trying to understand what makes jazz sound like jazz has forced me to look at the elements of music more closely.