BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
When did you last listen to the music of J.S. Bach? Perhaps you heard a recording or attended a concert that was presented in the spirit of HIP — historically informed performance practice, which seeks to emulate the way this music may have been played back in the day.
But an upcoming event at the Melbourne Recital Centre will open your mind to how music comes full circle, evolving through new styles and genres that represent the way Bach himself might have played! In this case, we’re talking about improvisation — a method Australian jazz singer Michelle Nicolle will use to showcase the works of this baroque composer in The Bach Project.
The Michelle Nicolle Quartet takes the centuries-old music of Bach, then arranges it for drums (Ronny Ferella), guitar (Geoff Hughes), bass (Tom Lee), and Michelle’s voice. Michelle — who has previously won the Australian Jazz Awards and National Jazz Award — tells CutCommon about the shared foundations between jazz and the music of Bach.
Michelle, I’m interested in the approach you’re taking to Bach — that he was an improviser, and you’re playing his music in the same spirit. What would you love the world to know about Bach as improvisation, as opposed to Bach as highly notated music?
Like his contemporary keyboardists, J.S. Bach [had] highly developed skills of accompanying choral arrangements ‘on the fly’ — in essence, using the notes of the choral score to spontaneously invent an elaborate, ornate ‘backing part’ for the choir. He might then notate these inventions, and formalise them into many of the major works we now celebrate.
His use of simple melodic cells, which grow and turn and flip and soar to mind-blowing heights, came from the flow of language within him – a huge library of studied compositions gifting him the ideas to play with and explore.
So once again, theory follows practice: Bach really played and heard many of these amazing pieces first.
So your quartet will take Bach’s music into new sonic realms “while keeping the songs themselves unchanged“. How does all this work?
This is how my quartet has always operated, for over 24 years now. We have tackled a wide range of material over the years from The Great American Song Book, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, to pop hits from the ’80s and of course my own compositions. Usually, I will come up with an arrangement of the piece, trying to feature parts of the song that I find most interesting and unique to that piece.
I am particularly attracted — there is a nerd in me — to re-harmonisation and the seemingly endless possibilities it offers. It’s then, really in the playing of the song by the whole band, where the sonic treatment takes place. We all try to find the limits of the song texturally, rhythmically, and dynamically within the new arrangement — and after a while, come up with an agreed ‘sweet spot’ where the song can shine, and the group can have fun playing with, and stretching out on, all these elements.
What would you consider foundational knowledge that you need to know when improvising with the music of Bach, and how do you choose when to break those rules?
Playing the music of Bach is no different to playing any other jazz piece, or any song really. As individual musicians, we each have a vocabulary and language developed from years of listening and analysing in the same way that J.S. Bach built his improvisations from his knowledge of composers such as Vivaldi.
We need to agree on the structure we will use for the song, and how the harmony is going to be treated. I often analyse the Bach pieces and translate the harmony using jazz chord symbols, and often end up with a lead sheet that looks quite a lot like a ‘jazz chart’.
There is such clarity to Bach’s music, so the harmony is pretty easy to define and organise.
We also, as a group, need to agree on the overall feel of the piece, if it will be played in strict tempo, or a little looser. And some pieces are quite free of tempo, and maybe a bit scary for some!
Why do you think jazz as a genre lends itself to Bach?
Both styles are pretty much built on the same rules: functional harmony, set time signatures, and constant rhythmic feels mostly based around eighth notes that have a real momentum to them.
It is so much easier to improvise on pieces that have such structurally solid foundations. This allows the band to really stretch out on these elements without feeling like the song’s integrity is being undermined.
There are some instrumental works on the program, and they’re not originally for the instruments of your quartet — or even for your instrument, voice. I’d love to know how you arrange these as a group!
Bach’s music is so well crafted that swapping instruments — and centuries — doesn’t seem to be a problem.
To my ear, the songs don’t necessarily lend themselves to particular instruments; it’s the other way around. The music informs the instrumentalist in how they should play.
Even my drummer has changed the way he has approached the music. He’s convinced Bach would have used drum set if it was around in his day.
Tell us a bit about the other pieces on your program.
Although every piece on the album features the music of Bach, I have morphed a couple of jazz standards by two of the great jazz pianist composers.
Bach’s Little Fugue in G minor has been married with another masterpiece from Thelonius Monk’s Round Midnight, and Horace Silver’s Lonely Woman is bookended by Sarabande from Bach’s Partita No.1.
What do you think the Bach Project can teach us about the music of one of the world’s most beloved composers?
That great music endures.
It’s not the style of the music that we are hearing here; it’s the composer’s intention behind it. Bach’s music carries a real spirit of human endeavour, creativity, and passion. We will try our very best to pass those feelings on in our concerts.
Parting words?
This has been a real passion project for me and the band, our ninth album since 1998. My first instrument as an 8-year-old was violin, and the music of Bach has been part of my musical world since then. Even though jazz has taken over, this music will never leave me.
I don’t think of jazz as a music limited by genre. This album is a nice place to appreciate the collaboration with my band over all the years; the inspiration I receive from all the other great artists out there, and the real joy I feel to do what I love doing.
Hear Michelle Nicolle Quartet — Bach Project at 7pm July 4 in Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Images supplied.
