Friday 11 March 2011

Lunch Hour Concert: Charl du Plessis Jazz Trio


I don't like Jazz. One song, maybe two. But I won't go to a Jazz club and spend my night sitting at a tiny round table, ordering whiskey and enjoying the music.

To my surprise this week's lunch hour concert's performers were incredible: yes they are a Jazz trio, but they redid classical music and jazzed them up, literally. The trio consists of Steinway Artist if 2006, Charl du Plessis, on piano; Hugo Radyn on drums and Werner Spies, who is almost as tall as his instrument, on bass.

See more about the Charl du Plessis Jazz trio here

In the hour they played, I closed my eyes and travelled around the world :
Mozart's Andante from Piano Concert no 21 transported me into 70s style Brazilian hotel lounges: sipping a caipirinha, then driving down the Copa Cabana, wind in my hair, sunglasses on and ready for a great day.

Next came the Argentinian pampas, riding horses and herding cattle with Chopin's Waltz in C minor ( Op. 64 no 2).

From Argentina I became a red balloon, released into the air at a carnival.As I slip from the small hand and sense freedom, Bach's Prelude and Fuge in C minor ( WTC I no 2) accompanies my joyful flight. But as night descends, so does my fear and the music rumbles like an approaching thunder storm. The instruments turn to day again and on my balloon flies, happily drifting in the sunlight.

The trio had a face-off in Johnson's Carolina Shout, which made me think of living in Kentucky or Tennessee, drinking a mint julep and listening to the insects buzzing in the garden while relaxing on my porch.

Lastly, they "funked up" Chopin's Prelude in C Minor ( from 24 Preludes, Op. 28 no 20), through which I became Daddy Cool, running my own sin city and driving around in some badass black car. The music changed from playing in the trailer for some Bruce Willis film to soft, delicate notes, almost like moonlight caressing a peaceful world.

That is why I like music : I don't need to physically go anywhere to see the world and learn something new I had not previously considered.

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