Ed Kaizer Takes Television Viewers on Musical Journey, “Bach Meets Jazz”

08/11/2011 6:16 PM

Pianist Edward Kaizer Sr. takes television viewers on a journey of musical discovery in “Bach Meets Jazz,” a local production from WTVP-Public Television, premiering 7:00 p.m. August 14 on WTVP-47.

Part concert special, part learning experience, Kaizer and his musicians perform a series of Kaizer’s own arrangements that demonstrate how Bach’s harmonic, melodic and rhythmic concepts became the founding principles of most jazz composing and improvising and continue to influence the genre today.

“I’m never sure if we’re ‘jazzmatizing’ Bach or ‘Bachmatizing’ jazz,” says Kaizer, “I just know that audiences are astounded by the seamless flow of the music from Bach’s original works to the band’s own improvs.”

Joining Ed Sr. on stage in front of the live studio audience are his son Ed Kaizer Jr. on bass, grandson Nick Kaizer on trumpet, daughter-in-law Lynn Kaizer on vocals, as well as Tim Holl on flute, and Matt Warren on drums. The set list is taken from a wide variety of Bach’s works, instrumental and chorale, and includes selections from:

– “Flute Sonata No. 2” in E Flat major, BWV1031 (flute and piano quartet).

– “The Magnificat” in D major, BWV 243 (vocal and piano quartet).

– “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” BWV 147 (piano trio).

Ed’s Kawai piano for the production was supplied by Schertz’s MusiCenter in Peoria and Bloomington. Peoria music lovers may recognize aspects of the program from when Cantor Martin Dickey and John Jost included the Kaizer jazz renditions in the recent Peoria Bach Festival.