... German Big Band!If you have never heard Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and would like to, this should not be your first stop.
This arrangement by Bill Dobbins mixes the Big-Band jazz of the famous WDR Jazz Orchestra and the choral stylings of The King's Singers.
If such a thing sounds interesting to you, satisfy your cravings with little fear. I was certainly curious, and while the whole project never congealed for me overall, my goodness, what creativity utters forth from Dobbins and these performers.
A review from 2021
I
like the thought of experimenting with the fusion of classical music
and jazz. After all, Duke Ellington was successful with his suites from
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Grieg’s Peer Gynt on Columbia,
a concept built through his collaboration with Billy Strayhorn, so I
think there is a lot of untapped potential in this area. I am not sure
Bill Dobbin’s riff on JS Bach’s 2+hour Christmas Oratorio is a complete
success, but it is an interesting listen.
First, I don’t think
the Christmas Oratorio has as strong a populous pulse as the
aforementioned Tchaikovsky or Grieg Suites, which are staples among the
general masses in pop culture. However, using Bach’s music in jazz is
certainly not new, as The Swingle Singers rocketed their whole career in
the 60’s and 70’s from their vocal take on his music, now found on Virgin.
I
think the difference in each of those examples is Ellington and Ward
Swingle went completely into the jazz idiom, and made their own
creations and sounds rather than jazz mimicry of classics. Here, Dobbins
seems to keep the vocals firmly in the past, with new harmonies and
rhythms of course but maintaining the familiar melodies and instrumental
lines, yet the instrumentals are always centered in the world of jazz. I
think if he had gone full hog into the jazz medium, vocals and all,
much along the lines of Quincy Jones’ The Soulful Celebration of
Handel’s Messiah on World Entertainment, this might have been a completely successful venture, for me.
Dobbins
also keeps intact Bach recitatives, a distinctly old-fashioned form of
music making. It is an odd inclusion, and it really saddles the second
half of their presentation, for 13 of the 19 tracks on disc 2 are
nothing but recitatives. As a listener, the meat and potatoes of this
work are the arias, chorales, and choruses, so the ending peters off a
bit unsatisfactorily. At least, Dobbins picks and chooses parts of the
Christmas Oratorio to set; the whole work might have lasted four CDs in
this form.
Fortunately, the WDR Jazz Band and The King’s Singers
are top-notch ensembles. The band sounds great, and the live performance
atmosphere doesn’t lessen their impact. WDR really excels when they
break away from Bach and explore their improvisatory sections, and we
get plenty of them in this performance.
The King’s Singers are an
early-music 6-person vocal ensemble, and while their repertoire has
crossed over into folk, jazz, and pop music, their British Renaissance
sound is firmly intact. They seem a bit light for the proceedings, but
it might also be the separate miking for this live performance. They
sing wonderfully as an ensemble though, and the solo work is quite fine,
if not a bit stiff for the jazz layout.
If it seems I have been
nothing but critical of this music and recording, listening to Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio as interpreted through jazzer Bill Dobbins with The
King’s Singers brought nothing but smiles to my face. If the thought of
riffing on classical music doesn’t make you cringe, this recording will
be a perfectly pleasant experience.
Works
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248
Performers
The King's Singers
WDR Big Band
Bill Dobbins, conductor
Label: Signum
Year: 2010
Total Timing: 1.47.17
This is going to be for the curious only. Especially so if you like jazz and/or Bach, including the idea of a marriage between their two, distant musical worlds.
It is an easy listen, however, I was not captivated by the end product on the whole. This is when the descriptor 'interesting' becomes a loaded word.
Find more Bach recordings HERE!
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