Work succeeds from jazz to DJ

July 10, 2006

From The Register-Guard
By Terry McQuilkin

Reimagined is the operative word here. Not arranged or adapted.

“The Goldberg Variations Reimagined,” the work that listeners in Silva Concert Hall heard Friday evening, is not a jazzed-up version of the 265-year-old keyboard work by J. S. Bach, but instead a composition by Uri Caine after Bach.

In the space of an hour and a half, Caine and seven colleagues explored a host of musical styles, including New Orleans jazz, Latin, gospel, klezmer and free jazz, in addition to delivering several of Bach’s original variations with added counterpoint superimposed.

The set began with the original Bach aria, but even before this ended, Caine added additional layers, including electronically enhanced sounds delivered by turntable artist DJ Olive.

Caine and his ensemble then offered convincing performances of various dance forms, including tango and mambo, and episodes in the styles of other composers, including a Rachmaninoff variation that instantly brought to mind the Russian composer’s piano concertos.

If some listeners perceived the concert as a chance for the ensemble to showcase Caine’s mastery of a wealth of diverse styles and the musicians’ versatility and nothing more, they probably missed the point.

The real value of “Variations Reimagined” doesn’t lie in diversity for diversity’s sake, but the way in which a single harmonic progression can yield a multiplicity of expressions, and how those varied expressions coalesce into a single thesis.

Although in each variation Caine borrowed a technique from one or more composers, or appropriated a nonclassical musical style to achieve his musical ends, the set as a whole stood up as a unified, dramatic entity.

Quotation of earlier composers is a time-honored technique. Many of today’s composers draw from a smorgasbord of musical styles for their concert work. (Listeners who attended the concert that opened last year’s Bach Festival might recall Osvaldo Golijov’s “La Pasión Según San Marcos” and its admixture of popular and art music elements.)

Each of the eight musicians on stage exhibited the highest level of virtuosity and proved absolutely convincing no matter the genre.

Barbara Walker belted out her vocal lines in the gospel-style variations with dynamism and fervor. Violinist Joyce Hammann played Bach’s original lines and Caine’s added counterpoint with accuracy and panache; impressive was her delivery of a variation in which Caine borrowed from one of Bach’s violin partitas. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi was featured in a free jazz variation and shined with his soloing in the straight-ahead jazz sections. Reed player Chris Speed, too, proved himself a skilled musical chameleon. His clarinet lines in the klezmer-style variation were extremely convincing.

An early variation in the set allowed bassist Kenny Davis to showcase his considerable technical prowess and impeccable musicianship, which was in evidence throughout the evening. Drummer Jim Black captured each musical style perfectly and with the utmost sensitivity, driving the band when the music demanded it, holding back when appropriate.

There were times, near the beginning especially, when I found the electronically enhanced sounds of DJ Olive’s turntables an intrusion on Bach’s exquisite music. As the work progressed I not only appreciated the artist’s phenomenal skill, but how essential these sounds are to Caine’s vision.

As pianist, Caine showed himself to be as adept at performing in these myriad styles as he is in composing in them.