You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 5 Classical Pieces That Will Enhance Your Jazz Playing - #29

Episode Date: February 28, 2018

Adam and Peter discuss some of their favorite classical pieces and composers and how they fit into jazz. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Manus and I'm Peter Martin and you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about five classical pieces that will enhance your jazz playing. Awesome. So this is five pieces of classical music, I guess? I mean, I'm assuming unless we're going to start an art podcast next, which you could. That's right. I want you kick it off, Adam. Yeah, so let's start with Chopin etudes. Now most pianists are going to be kind of familiar with this, I hope at least. These are some of the best atudes ever written for the piano. I mean, it really is a great workout if you can get these up to speed.

You know, you're actually playing some real piano. And on top of that, they are brilliant to listen to. I mean, they're varied, and the music is so incredible. I mean, it's really the mark of one of the great composers that they make atudes sound that musical. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that all these are going to be a little different, But that one, as you said, specifically for pianists, I mean, every one of those atudes addresses a specific part of the piano technique that applies to really any style, because it

just applies to how we are able to control or not control the instrument. And so in jazz and an improvisation, it's so important to be able to control the instrument. I love the Mauricio Polini recordings of those, by the way. Amazing. Yeah. Okay. Next, I'm going to go with, for number two. La Vulse by Ravel, wonderful French composer.

And I mean, this is a piece that I've heard quite a few times and to be able to hear it live, you know, from the standpoint of the harmony and the orchestration and the form and everything, it's just such a beautiful and amazing piece. And I think it can really inform our jazz playing, our jazz improvisation, our jazz composition.

And then definitely, I've used it a lot of references and I think that you might have done this as well out of references for orchestration of so-called jazz pieces when we work with orchestra, Revelle had great concepts on orchestration that really can be used and applied, I think, to the jazz idiom nicely. Yeah, and not just for orchestra, but if you play the piano or if you play the guitar, you know, Ravel had some incredible voicings and great, you know, voice leading within some, you know, seventh chords, 13th chords, that kind of thing, really amazing stuff.

Yep. The next piece that makes our list is Stravinsky's Petruchka, specifically the version for orchestra and piano. You know, Stravinsky was at this time where jazz was there already. You know, as was, I mean, Ravelle, not so much, but Stravinsky was definitely in the jazz age when he was writing. And so jazz musicians started pulling from him pretty quickly as he's writing his great works, and Petrusca is no different.

There's a ton that you can get jazz-wise out of it. jazz-wise out of, you know, his, like you said, his orchestration, his voicing, his rhythm. I mean, he had some really happening things that had never been put to paper before. Really incredible. Yeah, I mean, Stravinsky was, I have it from some very inside jazz sources in Los Angeles. Once Stravinsky got out there, he was all up in the clubs, you know, getting high with the musicians, the jazz musicians. Okay, that's, I might even tell. Yeah, yeah, that might be taking a little far with that.

But definitely great influences both ways. Well, that brings, you know, to mind George Gershwin and Rhapsody in Blue, probably his most iconic piece and most recognizable. And I think that that is, you know, now we're getting into an area probably of even more overt and direct influence of jazz on classical. But, I mean, Gershwin really understood both worlds. In addition to the sort of popular song, Tin Pan Alley, opera. I mean, he brought a lot of worlds together in a way that was really not corny. Now, when you're getting on the United Airplane, their version of it that they blast in your ears at 5.30 in the morning is a little corny.

The Rhapsody in blue. But that, notwithstanding, it's just a great piece, you know, the orchestration. I mean, he was very influenced by Ravel, of course. But in terms of, like, harmony and stuff and putting the piece together, a lot of great things happening in there. And he was also, Gershman was really influenced by New Orleans early jazz, too, that you can hear in that from the clarinet onward. And he was a great player. You know, you can check out these recordings of piano roles of him playing Rhapsody and Blue. It's unbelievable.

Right. United Airlines would play that at 5.30 the morning. I'd be cool with that. Totally. The next thing that make our list are Beethoven late piano sonatas. Now, we all know, you know, the famous early sonatas of Beethoven's when he was very young. But really, all late Beethoven, he was so far ahead of his time at this point and so far ahead of the game late in life. And obviously depressed and dying.

And like all this great music came out. These late pianos sonatas are just gorgeous. They, some of them, sometimes you think, oh, this is, what am I listening to Brad Meldow or something? I mean, it sounds, it has that modern feel. I would also add to this, his late string quartets, you know, any of the opus 1.28s on, 1.30, all that stuff. I mean, it's unbelievable. It's so good. That's great.

Well, that's five for you, but can I throw in a bonus? Yeah. I know we said five classical pieces. Okay, I want to throw in because we could go back even a little bit before that, which is Bach, as in J.S. Bach. And, you know, the Bach inventions, the well-temper clavier, preludes and fugues. Like, specifically, the keyboard music, I think, would really enhance a jazz pianist. So we started out there kind of talking about the Chopin etudes. So this brings it back a little bit more directly to pianists.

But if you study these pieces, I mean, you know, when we start with that, first invention, in terms of learning counterpoint, learning phrasing, being able to have independence of the hands, all these very basic but important elements of piano technique that we can directly apply to jazz, go back to the source, go back to the source, Mr. Bach. Yeah, and you don't have to... Fraubach, I guess it would be, right? Oh, Hare? No, what is it?

Hair, I guess. Air Bach, yeah, fraubach. Yeah, that was his wife. Yeah, that's a guy over on 3rd Street down here. No, but you don't have to be a pianist either to appreciate the counterpoint of Bach. I mean, think about a bass player in relation to a melody. You know, if you know you're playing under a melody, learning Bach Counterpoint helps you to place these lines.

Think about if you're a saxophone player playing with a trumpet, you know, how to navigate that. You can do a lot more interesting things than just parallel thirds. You know what I mean? There's a lot of music in that. Can you say his name again? I love the way you say that. Who, Bach?

Oh, Bach. I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't saying that right. Hey, so listen, thanks for listening to today's episode. If you like what you hear, please leave us a rating or a comment below. A good rating, right? Well, yeah, ideally. Preferably.

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