Tuesday February 7, 2012

The Kennedy files

By JASON CHEAH

From Bach to Fats Waller and all things in between, British violinist Nigel Kennedy is still a surprising package even after all these years.

NIGEL Kennedy, Britain’s former bad boy of classical music, seems to be having yet another new lease of life.

Two of the greatest violinists of their respective genres of the last century, Yehudi Menuhin (classical) and Stephane Grappelli (jazz), have informed the career of the 55-year-old Kennedy, who has carved himself a niche in his own right as an outspoken violin virtuoso and conductor.

He has won Classical Brit Awards, Grammy awards, while his first recording of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best selling classical work of all time. Those achievements are just the tip of the iceberg of Kennedy’s phenomenal success over the last 25 years.

Acclaimed British violinist Nigel Kennedy rolls out a set featuring the music of classical German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and New York jazz cat Fats Waller at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas KLCC, in Kuala Lumpur, tonight.

Since the start of the new millennium, he’s added music composer to his resume and started a love affair with the music and the people of his adopted home, Poland.

In a candid Q&A via email, Kennedy extols the virtues of jazz and classical, starting his very own Orchestra of Life, collaborating with the likes of Boy George, and bringing in Massive Attack drummer Damon Reece to play live with him on his extensive “re-write” of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

You are set to begin your Asia-Pacific tour by featuring music from Bach to Fats Waller. Classical to jazz, how did that concept come about for this set of performances and what can we expect?

Well, this is the first time I’m playing solo Bach on an international tour, so I’m really excited about that, but what I wanted to do was present to audiences these two fantastically genius composers and musicians, Bach and Fats Waller. For me, there’s no better composer than Bach. After the solo Bach, I’ll invite my musicians on stage to perform our arrangements of the music of Fats Waller; it’s a very acoustic programme but has loads of interesting twists and turns. I am really looking forward to sharing this with the audience there.

This was, as we understand, essentially what you performed at last summer’s BBC Proms. What was the reaction to those performances?

I couldn’t have been happier. At the Proms, the Albert Hall (in London) was full to bursting and you could hear a pin drop during the solo Bach. The Fats Waller set was a surprise and the audience loved it. It’s a very acoustic approach and just joyous music. I love the way that the audience just embraced the whole concept.

In recent years, for your albums A Very Nice Album (2009) and Shhh! (2010) with your quintet, you’ve been pushing your own composing mettle to the fore. What has it been like featuring your own music more significantly in recent years than interpreting music from other composers?

I couldn’t be happier to be playing my own stuff and it’s great my record companies have given me the freedom to do it. I just couldn’t survive if I had to play concerto after concerto every night. It’s my idea of hell!

What was it like recording with Boy George for your arrangement of Nick Drake’s Riverman?

He performed this piece so sensitively – it was just beautiful. I knew his voice would be perfect for this track.

Last year, you released your new album of your work Four Elements with the Orchestra of Life. It has been described as a new take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Tell us a little about this musical work.

What inspired me was exactly what the title reflects: the elements which dictate the patterns of our lives. Feet on the ground ... the air we breathe ... the fire which rages ... the symbolism of water in our lives. I had an incredible time making this album – it’s all my own music but, when I hear and play it on stage, it’s apparent that it is inspired by all the music which I love and which has influenced me over my life. The Four Seasons is completely differen t from my old performances. I bring elements of electric instruments into the orchestra and I have included bass, guitar, drums (including Damon Reece), vocalists and Hammond organ. It includes improvision, electric instruments ... it’s what I call my “rewrite”!

You have been alternating between Poland and Britain for 13 years since you moved there, started conducting and getting married. Do you still conduct the Polish Chamber Orchestra? What has been the attraction to Poland and the Polish music and musicians that you have been working with?

I actually gave up the artistic directorship of the Polish Chamber Orchestra recently and started my own orchestra, the Orchestra of Life. We have been touring Europe over the last year with programmes of Bach, Duke Ellington, Vivaldi and my own compositions. It is a very exciting experience for me to have my own orchestra – a lot of the cats are now also improvising and I bring into the orchestra, electric instruments and percussion. I even had Damon Reece, the drummer from Massive Attack, who joined us on our last two tours.

I am also pretty busy with the my quintet. Poland is full of great jazz musicians. There is a great tradition there and there are still lots of small clubs, particularly in my town of Krakow. They are also educated in jazz to a very high level in Poland. My quintet members are some of the brightest “jazzers” in Poland – we now know each other so well, and I am so happy with the way the group has developed.

Yehudi Menuhin verses Stephan Grappelli – you were something of a protege to both of them, the greatest violinists of the last century in their own fields. Having known them for years, what do you feel you have gained from them?

They were so different. Obviously, Yehudi took me on as a small boy and I know now, how important it was for me. With Stephane, I think I have always had an instinctual love of jazz. I am an improviser and find it difficult to play a piece of music in a straight way, that is straight off the page.

Stephane Grapelli came to the Menuhin School and ask ed the young students if they wanted to take a crack at improvising. I put my hand up and loved it from the moment I was introduced. The creative freedom within a structure was very appealing to me.

Euro 2012 will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine in June. With England’s training base in Poland, although their matches will be be played in Ukraine, will you be doing something special? England won’t meet Poland in the group stages this time, though.

Poland is my adopted home and I’m very proud of the country – I think I’ll be playing at some of the events. Who do you think I’ll be supporting?

What has been the craziest thing you’ve ever done in concert over the years?

I don’t think I do anything crazy at concerts ... for me, it’s all about entertaining people and sharing some incredible music and musicians with them. I suppose inviting Damon Reece of Massive Attack to play on the Vivaldi Four Seasons shows could be seen to have been a bit risky but the audiences ultimately judged it and they seemed to love it!

*Nigel Kennedy will demonstrate his musical passion and elegant versatility in a unique showcase themed Nigel Kennedy’s Bach PLUS Fats Waller tonight at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas at 8.30pm. For the first half of his concert, Kennedy will perform Bach’s Sonata No.2 In A Minor solo. The second half of the concert will feature arrangements of the music of the legendary Fats Waller, together with his trio, Jarek Smietana (guitar), Yaron Stavi (bass) and Krzysztof Dziedzic (drums). Tickets range from RM100 to RM350. Browse dfp.com.my for more details. Hotline: 03-2051 7007.

eCentral

Tuesday February 7, 2012

The Kennedy files

By JASON CHEAH