october-2012

SYMPHONY IN BLUE
The Baroque and Blue quartet skew the boundaries of music, mixing
up jazz and classical to form the virtuoso style known as ‘crossover’
Music brings people
together. The Baroque
and Blue quartet
brings plenty of other elements
together too – baroque and jazz,
virtuoso performance and fun
improvisation, and artistic skill
and sheer entertainment. Their
mix of jazz and classical draws
an audience with very diverse
expectations; some arrive
sceptical but leave surprised and
enthusiastic.
The quartet’s history began
in 2005 on a cruise liner bound
for Norway. Christiane
Meininger and her trio had been
hired to entertain classical
music fans on board with pieces
by Haydn and Weber; Roger
Goldberg and the Semper House
Band were there to play for the
jazz enthusiasts.
‘We realised pretty quickly
that we could do something
together,’ says Meininger
brightly. ‘We hit it off straight
away. We’re both curious and
enthusiastic people.’
The band’s style is
‘crossover’, a combination of
classical and jazz that has
grown in popularity since the
sixties. The ensemble took its
name from a composition by
Claude Bolling, one of the most
famous exponents of the genre,
alongside Jacques Louissier.
Baroque and Blue take classical
compositions and give them a
contemporary feel. On their
recordings, structured and
controlled classical music
embraces the unexpected
elements of jazz, and jazz is in
turn infused with the virtuoso
language of classical music.
The line-up places jazz
musicians Roger Goldberg
(bass) and Enno Lange (drums)
alongside chamber musicians
Christiane Meininger (fl ute) and
Rainer Gepp (piano). Meininger
and Gepp have been performing
together for 12 years: she is an
experienced ensemble director
who devises imaginative concert
programmes with her trio of
fl ute, cello and piano, and enjoys
a solid reputation on the
classical music scene; pianist
Gepp is a soloist and respected
chamber musician who
frequently tours Europe and the
US. ‘It was a big challenge,
getting into the jazz world as a
classical musician,’ says Gepp,
‘but it was worth it.’
His dedication seems to have
paid off . ‘You can’t really tell the
diff erence between Gepp and a
professional jazz pianist any
more,’ says Goldberg, a jazz and
contemporary music expert,
who completed a degree in
violin and viola and went on to
study double bass and bass
guitar. He subsequently toured
Europe as a big-band bassist,
performing with stars like Katja
Ebstein, Max Gregor and
Caterina Valente, and taught
jazz, rock and pop double bass
at the Musikhochschule in
Dresden. Goldberg also plays in
the famous Micha Fuchs Band
and performs regularly with
Gunther Emmerlich and the
Semper House Band.
Drummer and percussionist
Enno Lange studied jazz, rock
and pop in Dresden, and has
been working as a musician and
music teacher since 2006. You
can hear him demonstrate his
musical versatility on various
releases, including albums by
the Top Dog Brass Band and The
Shy Boys.
The four bandmates live in
Cologne and Dresden, and
commute for rehearsals on lowcost
Germanwings fl ights. They
get practice space for free in the
Theaterkahn which, somewhat
symbolically, faces both the
Semper Opera and the legendary
jazz club, Tonne.
Top-rank composers from all
over the world have written
pieces for the band, including
the high-profi le Australian
D R E S D E N
Elena Kats-Chernin and Alan
Weinberg from the USA.
Germany’s Rainer Lischka
wrote a piece called Wendungen
(Twists) for them. Another of his
compositions, the humorous
Der springende Punkt (The Crux
of the Matter) inspired metal
sculptor Karl Günter Wolf ’s
work and set off an artistic
collaboration.
The piece was performed by
Baroque and Blue at his private
view, and in return the artist
designed the cover of their
debut CD, Silver Poetry. It seems
Baroque and Blue don’t just do
crossover in music.
In October WDR and NCA
release Baroque and Blue’s new CD,
Handel’s Delight. The quartet also
has another release in the pipeline:
interpretations of the Americana
suite by Alan Weinberg and
Wendungen by Rainer Lischka
GW—101