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Chopin was actually a jazzer


muiriled

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As to the O.P.'s contention in the title of this thread, I'd have to vote NO - Chopin may have been a genius, amongst other things, but he was not a jazzer.

Claude Debussy (& perhaps Maurice Ravel) on the other hand... :D

 

 

Scott

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CHopin was a genius just did not live long enough!

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As to the O.P.'s contention in the title of this thread, I'd have to vote NO - Chopin may have been a genius, amongst other things, but he was not a jazzer.

Scott

 

I think you're wrong regarding the latter, listen to this:

[video:youtube]rosYAcJ7zyA

 

It's all jazz.

Chopin simply couldn't play jazz music in European parlours at his times.

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I love that Etude.

 

Cool video!! That sounds great. I don't know who those two freaks are playing it but it sounds pretty fantastic. Clearly an old vid as well, judging by the monitors they're watching at times.

 

In all seriousness, some of the harmonies you come across in Chopin truly are astounding in how progessive they must have been in the 1830s. One of my favorites occurs in his third B major Nocturne, Op. 62 #1:

 

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/143/l_80dd306021e646b3a245b0759e1afc2b.png

 

Sorry the Chord symbol for B/C# should be aligned over the next measure, and the B/F# should be over beat 3, not 2.

 

With that full on Motown Sus Chord followed by a fat IV/I gospel cadence, this sounds like it's a cool 150 years too early.

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People have "jazzed up" all sorts of classics, from the Swingle Singers doing Bach to "A Fifth of Beethoven" and the aforementioned Nutcracker. There's just one dude who can't be jazzed up:

 

Brahms :laugh:

 

I love Rick Wakeman as much as anybody, but that "Cans and Brahms" thingy on Fragile was a disaster. If you're thinking of jazzing up Brahms or "Tomita-izing" Brahms, just walk away. Please, think of the children. :laugh:

 

My late, great teacher summed it up best during a lesson. I was playing a Brahms Sonata and laughing a bit because I was messing up. She looked at me and very sternly said:

 

Brahms never wrote anything funny.

 

:laugh:

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Just for those who haven't heard it - Applying a jazz approach to non-jazz classical music in a very musical way, one of my all time favorites - Ellington's revamp of the Nutcracker Suite:

 

http://www.rhapsody.com/playlistcentral/playlistdetail?playlistId=ply.12745149

Aarrgghh - it says "only available inside the United States"!

(and why?! :freak:)

 

 

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... She looked at me and very sternly said:

 

Brahms never wrote anything funny.

 

Oh come on, not even the Hungarian Dances? Not even a smile?

 

[video:youtube]

 

Larry.

 

I don't think Heifetz ever smiled, not one time. Sourpuss!

 

 

BTW, the Ellington Nutcracker has versions on Youtube.

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Just for those who haven't heard it - Applying a jazz approach to non-jazz classical music in a very musical way, one of my all time favorites - Ellington's revamp of the Nutcracker Suite:

 

http://www.rhapsody.com/playlistcentral/playlistdetail?playlistId=ply.12745149

 

This is one of my favs as well.

 

Wynton Marsalis does a great job recreating this in one of his "Jazz for Kids" series. Seeing that the Nutcracker is the one ballet that nearly all kids (and adults) will tolerate, it's a great teaching tool.

 

 

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Left hand stride, swing feel, no improv.

 

Classical composers recorded their improvisations on paper. About swing: On a break on a Lou Donaldson gig once, the drummer told me, "jazz swing started with the invention of the hi-hat in 1926 in NYC."

 

SK! Awesome! Lou Donaldson. :) I'd love to him (and you) play live sometime.

 

 

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My late, great teacher summed it up best during a lesson. I was playing a Brahms Sonata and laughing a bit because I was messing up. She looked at me and very sternly said:

 

Brahms never wrote anything funny.

 

:laugh:

 

You know, that's pretty interesting. I'm no expert on classical music by any stretch, but I am a "know what I like" kind of guy, and I've never enjoyed Brahms much, but wasn't sure why.

 

Now I know.

 

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bhodaway, thanks, just a sideman thing when he came through town once. I rarely do hard bop gigs these days - I've kinda moved on to other stuff. Amazingly, I just saw where Lou Donaldson was playing two nights ago in NY. He's gotta be 'getting up there'.

 

Carlo, sorry Ellington's Nutcracker wouldn't play for you. It's a classic, creative, swings hard and it's funny. Worth hearing. Makes no sense why it's not available elsewhere, since jazz stuff is more popular outside the US than in.

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but it doesn't sound like improvisation to me.

 

 

I think muiriled meant he was improvising on the interpertation of the piece. There are more people playing classical like it it was written, and not enough playing freely, with that personnal touch !

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jazz stuff is more popular outside the US than in.

 

and how on earth did you guys allow for this to happen...

Nobody allowed it to happen.

 

The creativity of musos combining styles and influences led to new music that became more popular.

 

Otherwise, Jazz is still alive and well in the US. :cool:

PD

 

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Carlo, sorry Ellington's Nutcracker wouldn't play for you. It's a classic, creative, swings hard and it's funny. Worth hearing. Makes no sense why it's not available elsewhere, since jazz stuff is more popular outside the US than in.

 

I posted a link to Marsalis doing it about 5 posts back, there are many renditions of it on Youtube.

 

In the 50s and 60s, there was a movement in music called " Third Stream." It was basically a fusion of Jazz and classical, what we are talking about in this thread. Here's the wiki:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_stream

 

In many ways, it produced some of the most ridiculous music ever written. :laugh: My favorite was the classic "Scheherazade" done in a version called "Scheherajazz-A symphony in Jazz". :laugh: It's about as cornball as you can get.

 

Here is Scheherajazz played by a junior high stage band, a pretty good one for their ages:

 

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