It's rather refreshing, in the contemporary music establishment, to hear a live recording of artists where the music takes complete and solely centre stage and it's not contaminated by screams, singalong and applauses of crowds halfway of a performance, leaving said crowds instead to soak in the atmosphere, creativity and extemporaneity that is generated by that magic called music.
That magic is something that our website was able to capture on From Bach To Ellington - Live, a sumptuous live album by British saxophonist Andy Sheppard and Swiss pianist and composer Michael Arbenz, two highly esteemed authorities in the current Jazz scene.
For Arbenz, this precious live recording arrives from the back of the success obtained from solo records such as the 2023's Reflections Of D, a tribute to Duke Ellington and the 2024's Classicism - A Point Of View, two albums that might have sparkled the idea, for the Swiss pianist, to merge Classical and Jazz in an ideal sonic bridge that would unite the songbook of two musical giants, in their own rights, like Ellington and Bach.
To be able to do so, Arbenz needed to complete his vision for this project by collaborating with a fellow musician that could apply that same dreamy, hypnotic criteria on reworking a few of Ellington's classics shuffled with ideas taken from Johann Sebastian Bach, then transported on an improvisational sonic journey where all would make complete sense.
In that respect, the choice from Arbenz to have somebody like Andy Sheppard, a long-standing ECM recording artist with an exceptional musical background, it was a real stroke of genius.
Recorded in August 2024 at Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland, From Bach To Ellington - Live sees two artists complementing each other's talent in such an effortless way, alternating passages of music that carry that intensity, will to explore and experiment on music that surely both Bach and Ellington would have very much loved to hear.
The interplay between Sheppard and Arbenz is breathtakingly beautiful, throughout the six pieces; whilst Sheppard is a magician in drawing nocturnal, atmospheric and hypnotic moods through his tenor saxophone, Arbenz creates wave after wave of melody with his piano playing with such grace and intensity, tiptoeing wonderfully, from time to time, with Sheppard in alternating moments of improvisation that enrich each piece in a very balanced and appropriate way.
A record that brings joy and brings the listeners to a journey in a land where Classical and Jazz can live in perfect harmony, a land where Michael Arbenz and Andy Sheppard, together, reign supreme.
From Bach To Ellington is due to be released on 13th June and it is available to be purchased on Michael Arbenz Bandcamp Official Page
