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Two ships that pass in the night - a mystic journey |
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
Mix healthy helpings of Bach’s heady spirituality with
lashings of John Coltrane’s mysticism, blend in a string
quartet, an organ, a countertenor and spice heavily with a
saxophone, and voilà, you have Bach-Coltrane, the latest in a
long line of releases from Zig-Zag Territoires, one of the
country’s leading recording labels.
Perhaps not for everyone, but most definitely a way into
Bach for the uninitiated, this is certainly an unusual project
worthy of patient listening. To aficionados, John Coltrane’s
music could be thought of as sacrosanct. Likewise, Bach is a
composer seen now to be ahead of his time, baroque in the
ornamentation of the day, but steeped in mystic pathos and a
pervading sense of self-expression, all too rare for the first half
of the 18th century.
John Coltrane (1926-1967) is considered by Raphaêl
Imbert, the project’s saxophone-playing leader, to be the Bach
of jazz. Coltrane was a pioneer, and the special world he left
owes a huge gratitude to his revolutionary, avant-garde style
which blends divine spirituality with more traditional
sonorities. Improvisation, a key player in jazz, can be seen
through Bach’s own extemporizations: a keen improviser
making a musical world in itself.
The Manfred Quartet show exemplary flexibility for a
chamber ensemble that’s normally more at home with the great
classical quartet repertoire. Gérard Lesne sings Bach’s Aria
from the Cantate ‘Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust’
(Contented rest, beloved soul’s desire) with affection,
accompanied by Raphaël Imbert’s infectious, Coltraneinspired
saxophone descants. Organist André Rossi, another
key player (literally) in this project, brings an intensity to
Bach’s Fantaisie BMV 542 and Coltrane’s ‘Reverend King’ as
well as appearing on several other tracks that make this disc a
curiously, all-absorbing tribute to two utterly different figures
who somehow occupy the same world but at different times.
Bach-Coltrane
Raphaêl Imbert (saxophone) with guest artists
Zig-Zag Territoires ZZT080101
Distributed by Harmonia Mundi.
www.zigzag-territoires.com
Bach-Coltrane: at the
Station Alexandre, Marseille, March 22 and 23
Tel: 04 91 00 90 00
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