The SwingleSingers got me into taking the intersection of jazz and the music of JsBach seriously. It's cool to have the WellTemperedClavier scat-sung. I also got turned on by the album ![[WWW]](/www/moin/htdocs/classic/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
Bach Improvisations by the Ira Stein Trio -- a group based in Pleasonton Calfornia.
I've been wanting to listen also to the music of Jacques Loussier that strikes me as a classic in this field.
From what I wrote on Aug 21, 2001:
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It is at that library that I whiled away three hours on Friday afternoon. I've been wanting to watch
Magnificat, a documentary made in 1985 about two performances of Bach's Magnificat: a more traditional "straight" one and the other -- a jazzed-up, "swingified" rendition featuring a young Bobby McFerrin, Ann Mortifee, and the New Swingle Singers. I wasn't able to lay my hands on a copy of this 50 minute video time in Berkeley -- but found it at the Metro Ref. Library. It was such fun. I'm thinking of buying a copy if I think that my friends would also be interested in seeing it. I've never seen so many people smiling whiling making music. One of the questions that was brought up with the singers was: would Bach have liked the jazzy version? Of course, we can't know for sure -- I think that he would have gotten an immense kick out of the whole thing. Indeed, we can wonder the types of improvisations he'd be able to pull off if he were alive today -- how he would assimilate jazz influences himself. Jazz organ, anyone?
Some references that might be interesting:
