Jazz Meets Classical
Between the years of 2000 and 2007 I had the pleasure of teaching saxophone at Morley College in London.
I was part of a fantastic music department and was fortunate to get to meet many students from different cultural and social backgrounds.
The teaching years at Morley were a life time experience that contributed to my persona and helped me tremendously in gaining experience as an educator..
During those years I was very fortunate to get to know pianist Joan Taylor who, amongst many duties she covered in the music department, coordinated the 'Can't Sing Choir, a vocal group that she founded when developing an interest in working with those who believed they couldn't sing and make music. In 1999 through the charity work in the Community with her Choir she was honoured to receive a Civic Award 'The Freedom of the Borough of Southwark'.
Our 'Jazz Meets Classical' project came out of a charity concert we happened to do in College. By performing a few pieces together we thought it would be interesting to get together and build a repertoire of music from composers of the 20th Century who had been influenced and had influenced the Jazz Idiom.
It is interesting to note that across the 20th Century there had been a reciprocal influence between French music and Jazz: Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans were amongst some of the successful jazz musicians of the 50's to integrate musical elements of the french 'Impressionistic' school in their compositions and arrangements; Debussy's 'Golliwogg's Cake-Walk' or Ravel's ' G maj piano concerto' make constant reference to syncopated rhythms and the blues.
Jazz and Classical went on to influence other music around the world such as the Brazilian Bossa Nova or the Argentinean Tango creating a whole new dimension to this art.
Joan comes from a classical background; both her and myself bring into this project our own mix of interests and inspirations derived from our respective experiences to create a unique sound.
Some of the repertoire includes compositions by: Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Gabriel Faure', Astor Piazzolla, H. Villa-Lobos, Jacques Ibert and others.
Regulars performances have taken place at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Late View Program. Tommaso and Joan have also performed concerts at several churches and music societies around the country and in London.