It’s 1984 and two men are having lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club.
One of them is German musicologist Christoph Wolff, a leading Johann Sebastian Bach specialist. He was approached by the other to answer the question: what is the best edition of the Well-Tempered Clavier?
Wolff’s guest is not a musicologist, music student, classical pianist or music critic. Rather, he is jazzman John Lewis, about to record a series of improvisation albums based on Bach’s preludes and fugues.
And in fact, Lewis’ project is not atypical in the jazz world.
Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker – to name just a few – have all recorded albums inspired by Bach or studied his work.
Paul Lay, jazz professor at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris, continues this tradition with his Bach’s Groove concert on December 2nd at Studio TD in Montreal!
But why are jazz musicians interested in Bach? What are performers of a style associated with spontaneity and nightlife trying to find in this old, deeply religious German composer?
Bach, the art of preparing for the jazz arena
To answer this question, let’s consider the perspective of a young musician in the 1930s or ’40s.
The jazz scene opens up paths to glory, but is fiercely competitive. New players are given very little playing time in the major clubs, and have to make a great impression to have a shot at climbing the ladder.
How do you prepare for such a challenge? Jazz schools don’t yet exist, and seasoned professionals are guarding their secrets…
Could classical music, often praised for its sophistication, help our jazz apprentice make progress?
After an initial overview of the repertoire, the answer seems to be: not really. Mostly, we find pieces that focus on the ensemble, on the combination of different instruments to create a cohesive whole. But the jazz musician cannot rely on the ensemble. He must prove his worth through his solos, in other words, through his ability to create a rich, self-sufficient and captivating melody.
But with a little more research, we come across Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and solo Cello Suites. The composer appears to have taken on an intellectual challenge: composing interesting pieces for solo melodic instruments (i.e. instruments that can only play one note at a time, and are thus usually incorporated into ensembles).
Solutions to the challenge include melodies that jump from one register to another to create the illusion of polyphony. In other words, to make it sound as if several instruments are being heard simultaneously.
This is exactly what our aspiring jazzman needed, as his mission is to put on a show with his trumpet alone.
Bach’s pieces for solo violin and cello have thus become essential exercises for generations of jazz musicians, who perform them on guitar, bass, saxophone, trumpet, and many others!
One doesn’t need to be a musicologist to see the resemblance between Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in C major and John Coltrane’s improvised solo on Giant Steps! In both, the melodies are slightly hyperactive, constantly shifting between high and low registers.
A universal harmony?
The pedagogical value of his work certainly helped establish Bach as an important figure in jazz circles. But is this the whole story? Could there be another reason his pieces are so often performed and used as a foundation for improvisation by jazz musicians?
We are entering slightly more abstract territory… But many share this idea: Bach’s music is surprisingly well-suited to being detached from its original context.
That adaptability is, in fact, quite rare. A Chopin nocturne, for all its obvious qualities, can hardly be played on any instrument other than the piano and evoke anything other than Romantic melancholy. The same applies to most composers and styles.
With Bach, on the other hand… A fugue played on the organ in a church creates a contemplative, spiritual atmosphere. And that same fugue, on electric guitar, in a stadium, creates an exciting, frenzied atmosphere, without the slightest sensation of strangeness or anachronism.
As if Bach’s harmony had the surprising power to transcend styles and eras. As if he had uncovered universal musical rules that adapt to all contexts.
Are you skeptical? You should be! After all, we are the Bach Festival, so we might have a bias.
There’s one way to find out: join us on December 2nd for Paul Lay Trio’s Bach’s Groove concert and see for yourself!
The Festival International Bach Montréal team
