After a world premiere at the
Umbria Jazz festival, Iranian classical pianist Ramin Bahrami
and Italian jazz pianist Danilo Rea will take their joint Bach
project on the road, performing at Ravello on August 7.
The experiment on the frontier between classical and jazz
music titled In Bach? is an homage to the celebrated German
Baroque composer and musician who influenced the likes of
Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schumann.
At the moment there are no plans for a CD, the prospects
for which are "written in the stars" says Bahrami, but the
unexpected musical duo want to take their project on tour around
Italy and elsewhere.
The idea, and their friendship, were "born in Rome over a
great plate of carbonara and a good glass of wine," Bahrami told
ANSA.
One of the greatest living interpreters of Bach, the
Tehran-born virtuoso is also an avid listener of great jazz
pianists of the past such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and
Michel Petrucciani, and he has great admiration for Rea.
Rea is "the most authoritative, refined and musical of
Italian jazz pianists," he said.
Rea, for his part, explains that their partnership has
generated "an absolutely innovative experiment because Bach is a
very complex world - it is not like playing standard jazz or an
opera aria."
"I am 200% faithful to Bach's original message, while
Danilo with his harmonic knowledge creates a very amusing jazz
tapestry that exalts his modernity," Bahrami said.
"This is because Rea is an intelligent, unintrusive
musician, and because Bach's music may be 300 years old but
seems to have been written today - it can be camouflaged
perfectly with jazz".
"He and I will play this music differently each time and we
will find our way while trying to serve the Maestro of Leipzig
as best as we can," Bahrami concluded.
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