Charmed life

Trust Nigel Kennedy to keep things casual and cool when it comes to bach tributes and Fats Waller takes.

From classical to jazz, and anything in between, Nigel Kennedy is not your conventional classical violinist by any means, even if he was trained and influenced by the best.

The premise of any repertoire featuring both classical and jazz music in one concert can be as daunting as they come.

Kennedy’s Tuesday night concert at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP) in Kuala Lumpur, featuring music from Bach to Fats Waller, may seem about as unconventional a repertoire for a classical concert as possible, but for this British-born violinist, it came as naturally as if it were in his blood.

of course, we’re also talking about someone who has made headlines as much through his performances as his unconventional style and opinions in music over the past 25 years.

Kennedy has certainly been plying this kind of musical journey since his pre-teen years. He’s now 55 years old and still a punk at heart. By his own admission, he was always an improviser with an instinctual love for jazz. Indeed, he was picking out Fats Waller tunes on the piano by age 10. As a child prodigy, mentored by legendary classical violinist Yehudi menuhin, Kennedy was also picked (or volunteered) by legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli for improvisation workshops. The love of classical music, in this case, the music of German baroque legend Johann Sebastian Bach, is evident as well.

Kennedy states in his concert programme notes that “playing the solo music of Bach is a challenge I can’t refuse, one which gives my schedule a little more focus and a chance to push myself further than I otherwise might.”

And he laments over what he describes as “specialists pushing Bach into a rarefied and effete ghetto which leaves many feeling that Bach’s music is merely mathematical and technical – I see it as my job to try and keep Bach in the mainstream and present his music with, rather than without, its emotional core.”

That’s the classical part. What about the jazz? And transitioning from Bach to the music of legendary jazz pianist and composer Fats Waller?

Kennedy makes it plausible by pushing the boundaries of interpretation, technique and improvisation, as he’s inclined to re-write most of what he interprets in performance.

on Tuesday evening, the near capacity audience at the DFP hall had to wait an extra hour before finding that out on his first night of his AsiaPacific tour.

The man and his trio of musicians – Jarek Smietana (guitar), Yaron Stavi (double bass) and Krzystov Dziedzic (percussion) were already delayed flying into Singapore from London and they still had to make another five-hour drive up to reach Kuala Lumpur in time (almost) to make this concert happen.

It certainly made for a more personal show, with Kennedy in an apologetic mood.

His bantering with the audience peppered with veiled and not so veiled references to a certain British airline flying out of that certain British airport (Heathrow!) which had been snowbound due to the widely reported Europe-wide adverse weather conditions.

As for the concert itself, it was essentially an excerpt of his series of performances at the BBC Proms late last summer in London, and this Kuala Lumpur appearance was, again by his own admission, the first time he’s playing solo Bach on an international tour which includes dates in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Australia.

“It’s a very acoustic programme but has loads of interesting twists and turns,” he said in an earlier interview.

of course, with the kind of reputation Kennedy is renowned for, trying to anticipate anything from this concert was a wasted effort.

We’re delighted to report that the one-hour-and-45-minute concert provided surprise after surprise for the eager audience.

For the first portion of the concert, he performed the first three movements (Grave, Fugue and Andante) of Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A Minor BWV1003 with fluid grace steeped in passion, yet not lacking in technical mastery, especially during the many double stopping (playing two notes simultaneously) efforts.

But rather than just switching from classical to jazz from one portion of the concert to the next, he sprang a shocker when introducing the final Allegro movement of the sonata, also performed in a more stately fashion. Yes, he brought in Stavi and Dziedzic – a double bass and drums (snare and brush) rhythm section.

The next portion of the concert, the jazz section, Kennedy’s bunch on stage was joined by guitarist Smietana.

out came the smiles and casual atmosphere as the Kennedy and his quirky trio reworked four Waller tunes – How Can You Face Me Now, Viper’s Drag, I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby and the classic Honeysuckle Rose. The jazz romp lasted over half an hour, sounding like a tribute to both Waller and Stephane Grappelli at the same time.

While Kennedy is certainly no Grappelli in the jazz violin stakes, it was the musical rapport he had with highly acclaimed Polish guitarist and jazz composer Smietana, Londonbased double bass and electric bass player Stavi (who has recorded with robert Wyatt and David Gilmour), and Polish drummer-percussionist Dziedzic that made the performance interesting and intriguing.

There was a third portion of the concert – the encores, during which Kennedy plucked out two pieces – each lasting almost 15 minutes.

The first was what he describes as an economy version of Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins, which essentially was yet another rework featuring his three musicians as well as himself letting rip on his own improvisation techniques, with pastiches of various familiar orchestral and classical themes from the likes of Gershwin, Grieg and more mashed up into the spontaneous music trek.

While these days, the concept of marrying classical and jazz music (or any other form of music for that matter) is already beginning to feature among the younger generation, the best thing about the DFP night was watching and listening to a man and musician who can arguably be counted as one of the true pioneers of classical crossover music. The oddball Englishman continues to evolve his own take on it – torn pants, patched leather jacket, spiked hair and all. Some things don’t change with Kennedy, after all.