This Sunday morning I was half awake and listening to the radio at something called 6.47am and the presenter of Radio 5 breakfast, Chris Warburton, was talking about his cultural new years resolutions. One of these was to learn more about classical music. He had a chat to some violinists at the BBC symphony orchestra, not sure why violinists, probably because they could play clips on the radio easily. They started off suggesting Ravel, on the grounds that everyone knows the Bolero.
The question that didn’t get asked was what had made him think he should investigate classical music? The clues were there in the interview. Another of Chris’ resolutions was to listen to Jazz pianist Bill Evans. Now Evans, who many non Jazz listeners will still have heard on Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue”, was influenced by some aspects of classical music, principally Bach, as well as by Jazz players like Bud Powell. Having said that this article suggests as do other sources that Evans had a lot in common with impressionist composers like Debussy, and Ravel, and also Chopin from a bit earlier. So it looks like the violinists Chris was talking to got it right for the wrong reasons. I admit to knowing nothing about classical music, but I do understand that the description classical music is a bit like bracketing, Kylie, Napalm Death and Aphex Twin all under ‘Pop’. This means that you won’t like all of “Classical” any more than you will necessarily like all “Rock” or “Jazz” or “Hip-Hop”, so a starting point that relates to what you like already will help your explorations. Chris mentioned recommendations for Brahms and Schubert which even with my limited knowledge seem unlikely jumping off points for someone who said he likes Jazz, Soul & Funk.
Every form of music has it’s snobbery and maybe I detected a hint of this in the suggestion of Ravel to Chris, as it seemed to be based on the assumption that most of us only connect with a violin through ice skating and adverts. I have always thought that I may like modern classical music and my few explorations seem to suggest I would. What I need is a place to start; anyone like to help?
By the way Chris, if you ever read this, Bill Evans, start with the classics, Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Sunday at the Village Vanguard and pretty much anything featuring his trio with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. I have a very good compilation of his final years, “We Will Meet Again – The Bill Evans Anthology 1977-1980” and after that you’re off on your own.
