Performers
- Paul Lay Trio
- Paul Lay piano
- Clemens van der Feen double bass
- Donald Kontomanou percussion
Programme
Jazz improvisations on (and referring to) music by Johann Sebastian Bach:
Johann Sebastian Bach Das wohltemperierte Klavier (selection)
Prelude in B-flat major, BWV 866
Prelude in G minor, BWV 861
Oscar Peterson Bach Suite
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Bach’s Blues
Paul Lay Blues
Johann Sebastian Bach
Jesus bleibet meine Freude, chorale from cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147
Erbarme dich, aria from St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Paul Lay Bach’s Groove
Johann Sebastian Bach Musette in D major, BWV Anh. 126
Concert description
Although it goes without saying that Johann Sebastian could not have experienced jazz, he is sometimes jokingly credited with being the first jazzman (or the second, as he competes with Claudio Monteverdi for that title, according to others). The Leipzig cantor began to inspire twentieth-century jazz musicians early on; the Play Bach programs of Jacques Loussier’s trio, for example, paving the way for the Third Stream, became famous, and of the numerous Polish ones worth mentioning are the Bach Rewrite by Piotr “Pianohooligan” Orzechowski, Marcin Masecki and Capella Cracoviensis. Joining the ranks of musicians transforming their fascination with the works of the author of Das wohltemperierte Klavier into their own projects has recently been Paul Lay with his trio (Lay – piano, Clemens van der Feen – double bass, Donald Kontomanou – drums). In Bach’s Groove, he pays tribute not only to the Baroque master, but also to Miles Davies and his Bag’s Groove, and, additionally, places the legendary Oscar Peterson’s Bach Suite, recorded in 1986, at the center, which is rarely heard live today. What attracted Lay to Bach’s music? The fact that his pieces “are the most rhythmic of all.”
– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)