It started with a single phone call to Keith Jarrett, the popular jazz pianist who has rankled the highbrows-and earned a fortune in the process-with his experiments in classical music.
Two years, hundreds of phone calls and thousands of dollars later, it has turned into a one-of-a-kind event, an evening devoted to Jarrett`s controversial classical compositions, four of them world premieres, all to be recorded live in Chicago by a European record label (ECM).
And though there is little doubt that ”Keith Jarrett, Richard Stoltzman and Friends,” at 8 p.m. Monday in Orchestra Hall, will offend some members of Chicago`s classical music community, others regard this concert as an important step in revitalizing a serious-music scene that reveres aged works to the near-exclusion of new ones.
Surely that`s how the enterprising woman who placed that original phone call to Jarrett feels.
”I simply picked up the phone and told him what I had in mind,” recalls Susan Lipman, still delighted at the way she enticed Jarrett to collaborate with Chamber Music Chicago, the venerable but lively organization she directs. ”I had been to New York a couple of years ago to hear Jarrett`s chamber piece `Sacred Ground,` I liked it, and I thought to myself, `Look, if we really want to succeed in making chamber music more accessible, and if we want to present music that shows real vitality, let`s go to Jarrett.`
”So I told Jarrett I wanted to bring his chamber music to Chicago, with performers whom he felt could do the best job-and he was very excited about it, he was instantly pleased.”
Which contemporary composer wouldn`t be? Here was an opportunity for Jarrett-who for years has fleshed out his jazz life with forays into classical composition-to present his newest work performed by artists of his choice in no less ”serious” a venue than Orchestra Hall.
Jarrett rattled off the players he had in mind: the brilliant clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the flutist Robin McKee (replacing Paula Robison, who had been booked originally), plus cellist Fred Sherry and violinist Lucy Stoltzman (Richard`s wife). And though the original plan called for only one or two of Jarrett`s works, the composer quickly became enamored of an all-Jarrett evening.
”Yes, it was me who suggested that I write new work for the evening, mostly because of the performers we had,” says Jarrett of a concert that has come to include the world premieres of his ”Terra Cotta” for clarinet and tuned drums (1987, commissioned by Chamber Music Chicago); ”Rem(a)inders,”
for piano, clarinet, flute, violin and cello (1987, commissioned by CMC);
suite for solo violin (1984); two movements from Sonata for flute and piano
(1984); the American premiere of the second movement from Sonata for violin and piano (1984); the Chicago premiere of ”Sacred Ground (for the American Indian)” for piano, clarinet, flute, violin and cello (1985); and, to open the program, J.S. Bach`s Sonata No. 2 in D Major, BWV 1028, for keyboard and viola de gamba, transcribed for keyboard and clarinet by Stoltzman.
”The idea of devoting the evening to my music just kept moving ahead. I had several other pieces that were waiting to be performed anyway, and since they involved some of the same instruments, this was probably inevitable,”
Jarrett says.
Except for one small detail: the risk.
”I worry a lot about this concert,” says Lipman, who thus far has been unsuccessful in winning special corporate or private sponsorship for the event. Though Lipman declines to specify the budget of the concert, it`s easy to see that it will not be cheap, considering the costs of top performers, several days` rehearsal in Chicago, copying and shipping new scores, rental of Orchestra Hall, promotions and so forth.
”I worry about this concert especially during the night when I`m supposed to be sleeping,” continues Lipman. ”I became particularly concerned a couple of weeks ago, because this is not a concert that has a clear market. It`s not a concert, in other words, that strikes directly at a classical music audience or a jazz audience.
”It`s a concert about reaching out to people, which makes it all that much more difficult to reach the right audience.
”But I think what we`re trying to do is legitimate. It is my belief that chamber music has to become much more accessible, especially to a younger audience. If chamber music is to survive, it can`t be viewed as an art form only for the educated elite-I can`t bear that thought.”
Considering the nature of Jarrett`s classical compositions, however, Lipman needn`t worry about appealing only to the educated elite. Rather, the concern might be whether the educated elite will balk at Jarrett`s
”classical” approach.
Though all of the works on the program have been notated on score, as opposed to the mostly improvised manner of Jarrett`s jazz works, his classical pieces tend toward a simplicity that might be called ”easy listening for the `80s.” Jarrett works for piano and orchestra, such as ”Solara March” and
”Mirrors,” are far from unpleasant, but only in the sense that white bread is-they go down very easily.
”That`s ridiculous,” says Jarrett. ”The people who are fascinated by New Age music may feel that way, and so might people who like to have their brains working 24 hours a day. But neither of those sets of people interest me that much, though I understand where they`re coming from.
”Yet I`m a little bit amazed that, after all these years of the human race existing and listening to music, people still don`t have any way of relating to a simple phrase.
”One of the most musical experiences I ever had was hearing an Egyptian reed player getting his reed adjusted properly. While he was doing that, he was playing for about 30 seconds at a time. He would play a series of phrases, and then he would fix his reed a little more.
”The audience happened to have been not American or European but North African, and when this audience heard these phrases, they spontaneously went absolutely crazy. I don`t remember any musical experience that was any more powerful that that.
”To me, that`s music.
”I`m not sure that people realize how difficult a simple thing is.
”For me, this concert gives a chance to see if there`s an audience for this kind of thing. And if there is, it gives me a chance to see what they thought of it.”
Regardless of how the audience and critics feel, however, it seems likely that its participants will be energized.
”For a classical performer, it`s kind of a startling sensation to come on stage not really quite sure what`s going to happen,” says Stoltzman, an esteemed clarinet virtuoso who has enjoyed considerable success in jazz and pop (his ”New York Counterpoint” album rode the Billboard crossover charts for several months this year).
”But it`s worth the risk. I remember when we prepared the world premiere of `Sacred Ground` in Lincoln Center a couple of years ago: After about two or three rehearsals, Keith brought in some rhythm and percussion instruments, gave them to us and said, `Okay, now you`ve heard the music, you`ve had some sense of it, begin using these if you can.` And I think that`s probably what`s going to happen with this concert.
”Like in `Terra Cotta,` in which I play clarinet and Keith will improvise his part on a set of tuned drums. Who knows how that`s going to turn out? It depends entirely on the moment.
”That`s what I`m looking for in this concert-a chance to move into a jazz musician`s frame of mind while still playing essentially classical music.”
It will be fascinating to hear how the jazz and classical worlds mesh, and whether local music lovers are curious enough to find out. But there is no arguing that positive-and unexpected-things already have come of this collaboration.
In addition to the forthcoming ECM record, RCA will be recording an all-Bach album by Jarrett and Stoltzman-a concession from the two artists for allowing Stoltzman, who records exclusively for RCA Red Seal, to appear on ECM.
And jazz composer Dick Hyman has composed a new work for Stoltzman that will receive its world premiere Sunday evening at a fund-raising benefit for the Jarrett event. (To be held in the loft of Lewis and Susan Manilow, the benefit will include dinner, with tickets at $65; for details, phone CHAMBER.) The rest is simply calculated risk.
”We`re not going to reach everybody with this concert,” says Stoltzman. ”We won`t reach people who want to hear more of the same old music.
”Those people probably won`t come to the concert anyway, and if they do, they`ll probably leave right away, because they`ll be saying, `What`s going on here? This is absolutely outrageous.`
”But, frankly, I think we should cherish this kind of an event.
”There`s so much noise in our world that we should realize a concert in which four performers get together to play new music with the composer is to be savored.
”Thank God there`s still a chance for concerts like this to take place.”
