Elizabeth Suh Lane and Bobby Watson occupy seemingly opposite extremes of music in Kansas City.  Suh Lane, an extremely talented classical violinist along with being the promoter of the Bach Aria Soloists, a group she founded, is about as married to the classical tradition as one can get.  Bobby Watson, on the other hand, is justly famed throughout the land for his saxophone virtuosity and improvisational abilities as a jazz performer.  Suh Lane is bound to the printed page, performing music of history’s masters. Watson uses barely sketched-out charts as reference for his free-wheeling solos of the heart and soul that exist in the moment.

So when this concert was announced a few months ago, this reviewer obtained his tickets with some trepidation.  Was this going to be the fulfillment of some long-lost musical coupling which somehow the rest of us have missed?  Or was this whole venture misguided from the start?

The capacity audience at White Recital Hall must have arrived with something like the same sense of anticipation.  Perhaps, like the crowd at a NASCAR event, we were attending with a vague, mildly suppressed hope that we were going to see a spectacular wreck.

In the event, the result was neither, and perhaps could have been predicted in advance.  The Bach Aria Soloists performed the straight classics brilliantly, Bobby Watson and bass player Jeff Harshbarger were delightful in their own tradition, and when the two worlds met it was pleasant, and often spirited, but not revelatory.

The straight Bach selection which opened the program, an excerpt from Cantata 30 sung with precision and poise by soprano Rebecca Lloyd, demonstrated that part of Baroque music was ornamentation in which the soloist ventured outside the simple melody to embellish the strains with interpolations of her own invention.  Okay, maybe this was the beginning of improvisation, but it didn’t sound anything like jazz.

In the ensuing performances of straight Bach compositions, harpsichordist Elisa Bickers, guitarist Beau Bledsoe and violinist Suh Lane demonstrated the technical and flair for this music which has made the Bach Aria Soloists such a local favorite among the classical music crowd in recent years.  Bassist Harshbarger joined the group, playing a straight basso continuo line, and aside from the mane and wild beard, seemed quite at home among the classicists.

Then came Watson the saxophonist, who came to stage for three Bach Sinfonias, interpolating a melody over a tame accompaniment, and although the result didn’t seem to quite fit, at least to a classically-trained pair of ears, it wasn’t offensive either, and the crowd seemed pleased.

The most spectacular technical display of the evening came from Suh Lane, playing a Sonata for Violin and Continuo.  Following was a familiar Bach tune, the Partita No. 3 in E Major for solo violin, in which Suh Lane skipped the simplest version of the melody, started out with Bach’s variations on the tune, then ventured into something more improvisatory than we would have heard in an ordinary concert.  It may have been the finest improvisation of the evening, and seemed to equally please both groups in the audience, to judge by the vigorous ovation.

Watson and Harshbarger played Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee with great abandon, stimulating a rousing audience response, although it didn’t seem to have much to do with classical music.

The entire ensemble turned to three songs by the contemporary Brazilian composer Guinga (real name: Carlos Althier de Souza Lemos Escobar; like some soccer players, he goes by a single name). Lloyd returned to the stage for the vocal part, but she seemed uncomfortable with Latin American rhythms and swings, and didn’t quite catch the mood, although Watson and Harshbarger were definitely into it, as was the guitarist Bledsoe.

Perhaps the most successful classical/jazz synthesis of the evening appeared in the final number, as Watson interpolated a Zoltán Kodály melody over an accompaniment taken from Bach compositions. At the conclusion the audience leaped to its collective feet and the performers were treated to warm ovations for their efforts.

So…does the marriage of classical music and jazz make sense?  From this program, each group appeared a little “outside of its comfort zone,” as Suh Lane remarked at the top of the program, and will probably require a bit more practice to become more at peace there.  But the performances of each group individually were thoroughly enjoyable, and the collaborations, especially in the final number, showed promise.

Bach may not have been “the first jazz cat,” as Watson called him during comments between numbers, but this reviewer would like to think that he would have enjoyed the performance, probably tapping his toes and shaking his bewigged head, right along with the more contemporary music fans in the audience.

REVIEW:
Bach Aria Soloists with Bobby Watson
Bach & Jazz Inventions
Saturday, June 4, 2011
White Recital Hall, UMKC Campus
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For more information visit http://bachariasoloists.com/

Top Photo: Bobby Watson

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.