Best of Classic Meets Cuba

by Cuba Percussion

Overview

This is a compilation of material from four Classic Meets Cuba CDs, plus two new tracks, packaged without benefit of notes or any information about the project. Classic Meets Cuba is a collaboration involving a pair of German musician brothers, pianist Tobias Forster and bassist Kilian Forster, and several Cuban percussionists. It might have been helpful for buyers to know the origins of each track. The good news is that the compilation format displays the virtues of this idea to the maximum. The appeal of this music lies in the variety of ways they've found to adapt the classics to Cuban percussion. Very few of them involve Baroque music, whose affinities to jazz in terms of consistent harmonic rhythm have made it the favorite among earlier crossover experimenters; when Classic Meets Cuba does do Bach, as in the Air (track 7), it actually breaks up the rhythm and melody. A number of the selections are taken from the group's Mozart Meets Cuba album of 2004, and these are impressive once again. Mozart and Beethoven, whose music depends fundamentally on changes in harmonic rhythm, would seem the toughest composer to transfer to this kind of arrangement, but the group actually finds ways to use the percussion to complement the dynamic of the music. Sample Guantánameritmo, track 2, based on the first movement of the Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457, or the Beethoven "Pathétique" sonata that follows. Classic Meets Cuba sometimes does straight jazz improvisation on classical tunes, but more often they rethink the piece and devise an arrangement that involves both the original material and the percussion as a unified whole. It all comes together with one of the two new tracks, the Paganini Variations (tracks 13-19), where the possibilities of the ensemble are explored more systematically. Highly recommended for jazz/classical crossover fans.~James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	03/30/2010
Label:	Sony Classics
UPC:	0886975751822
Rank:	98632

Tracks

1. Mambozart (after Mozart Symphony No. 40)
2. Guantánameritmo (after Mozart Sonata C Minor, KV 457)
3. Pathétique (after Beethoven "Pathétique")
4. El Cisne Triste (after Tschaikowsky / Chopin Swanlake / Funeral March)
5. Cancan (after Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld)
6. Summertime (after Gershwin)
7. Air (after Bach Air)
8. Salzburger Schafferl (after Mozart The Magic Flute)
9. Kubanischer Tanz / Cuban Dance (after Brahms Hungarian Dance)
10. Carmen Cubana (after Bizet Carmen-Suite)
11. O Mio Babbino Caro (after Puccini Gianni Schicchi)
12. Der Mond Ist Aufgegangen (after Traditional)
13. Paganini Variations~Variation 1
14. Paganini Variations~Variation 2
15. Paganini Variations~Variation 3
16. Paganini Variations~Variation 4
17. Paganini Variations~Variation 5
18. Paganini Variations~Variation 6
19. Paganini Variations~Variation 7
20. Reich Mir Die Hand (after Mozart Don Giovanni)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Klazz Brothers   Primary Artist,Ensemble
Cuba Percussion   Primary Artist,Ensemble

Technical Credits

Jan Gutzeit   Photography
Mathias Suess   Cover Illustration
Uwe Arens   Photography
Cuba Percussion   Composer
Klazz Brothers   Composer
Markus Rogenhagen   Photography
Urban Ruths   Photography