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Donal Fox
Composer - Pianist
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DONAL FOX: BLUES ON BACH
At the Regattabar last Saturday night, pianist/composer Donal Fox
presented another in his series of Bach/jazz programs with a trio
filled out by bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel. Bach has
inspired plenty of jazz musicians, from John Lewis to Uri Caine. With
its penchant for "ground bass" figures, harmonic progressions, and
contrapuntal melodic lines, the 18th-century composer's music is
fertile soil for improvisation (indeed, as was typical of the time,
Bach the composer was an improvising live performer). In the first set
at the Regattabar, Fox even offered a tutorial, demonstrating how one
of his own pieces adapted the cadence from a Bach invention and
transferred it to Lockwood's ostinato bass pattern. If that sounds pedantic, it wasn't. Fox has a genial, good-humored stage manner. ("This is one of those pieces you learn as a kid," he said about the Bach invention, "and then later you can't believe how hard it is.") What's more, the music rocked. In fact, it barely took a breath. Fox introduced the first number, the "Aria" from Bach's Goldberg Variations as a "prayer for peace." He played the lovely, prayerful melody through, then Lockwood joined Fox's left-hand bass figures and Israel accented the beat lightly with brushes. Then it was time for the blues, and that's when things took off. There were two blues, then a piece adapted from Handel, and then the Bach invention. For the most part, Lockwood laid down firm ostinato grounding while Fox and Israel sparred. Fox's playing was highly chordal and rhythmic, like a younger, more-Africanized Dave Brubeck. He set up fierce vamps, sometimes with a Latin montuno flavor, and played variations on the simple melodic material, mostly for rhythmic effect. Occasionally he'd take fierce running two-handed sequences up and down the keyboard. Israel anticipated every be at, every syncopation, every cadence, falling into satisfying unisons with Fox in the most unlikely passages, turning the music around, cranking it still higher. The music became a blur of fast and loud (Israel pounded some of his loudest accompaniment with brushes), and even though it never stopped swinging, there was a feeling of relief when Fox returned to a theme by Bach or Handel for some melodic refreshment. The one breather (there was also a Bach piece from the French Suite and a "Limehouse Blues") was John Lewis's "Django," which Fox introduced with a magisterial statement of the elegiac theme; its multi-part structure allowed the pianist to show off his more delicate, nuanced playing. Jon Garelick Issue Date: March 28 - April 4, 2002 Boston Phoenix |