CD Review: David Rees-Williams Trio - Classically Reminded: Bach.

David Rees-Williams (piano); Neil Francis (bass guitar}; Phil Laslett (drums).
(Review by  Lance).

Johann Sebastian Bach has long been an inspiration for jazz musicians sometimes as a pastiche e.g. Goodman's Bach Goes to Town or Fats Waller's Bach Up To Me. Other, more serious tributes have been paid by Peterson, Shearing and Jacques Loussier who made a career out of Bach's music and helped sell a lot of Hamlet cigars along the way.

Formed in 1988, the David Williams-Rees Trio who are based in Kent seamlessly make the transition from 18th century keyboard music to present day jazz. Indeed the joins are anything but obvious, instead the music flows as one.

Bach, one of the great improvisers, may well, had he had bass and drums alongside him, have sounded exactly like this - bearing in mind he wouldn't have been playing a Steinway!

As well as JS mighty B, as I recall him once being referred to, there are two sonatas by his contemporary Domenico Scarlatti. Scarlatti, himself a virtuosic performer, referred to his own music as 'ingenious jesting with the art' as opposed to searching for any particular cerebral depth which, maybe, is where some of today's jazz went wrong - cerebral depth has a lot to answer for.

Both criteria are catered for here jesting with the art and cerebral depth in abundance but done so tastefully and melodically and without offence. Bass and drums add to the contemporary feel.

My late mother, herself a skilled exponent of Bach, I'm sure would have loved this album.
Highly recommended.
Track listing/samples/buy.
Lance.