Dave Brubeck's stature as a composer of so-called
classical music got another boost with the release of this recital by his piano virtuoso friend and disciple
John Salmon -- who clearly gets the composer's endorsement in
Brubeck's liner notes. The major work on the disc is
Brubeck's half-hour-long
Chromatic Fantasy Sonata, which in itself amounts to a major addition to the sparse American
classical sonata inventory. Taking off from the spectacular opening of
J.S. Bach's
Chromatic Fantasy and
Fugue in D minor,
Brubeck soon goes his own way, gradually putting his own brand of polytonality into the
Chorale, and his melodic stamp onto an inversion of
Bach's "B-A-C-H" signature in the
Fugue movement. The lengthy, riffing
Chaconne bears the closest resemblance to
Brubeck's
jazz improvisations (including a brief passage that seems to refer to
"Take Five"), though without a
jazz pulse per se. Throughout,
Brubeck is in absolute control of the
classical processes he adopts, and he has something individual to say -- two signs of a potentially long life for this work.
Chromatic Fantasy Sonata takes up more than half the space on the disc, giving way to some brief chips off the workbench,
Five Pieces from "Two-Part Adventures" -- again, the basic idea comes from
Bach, but the treatments of these five miniatures (three of which originate from other
Brubeck pieces, including some for his
jazz quartet) bear the
Brubeck melodic touch.
Tritonis also exists in multiple versions (the best-known one being for
jazz quartet); this piano version takes off from an eight-note figure split into two keys, turning into a brilliant
toccata-like concert piece. Finally come two encores -- an often savagely aggressive thing called
The Salmon Strikes written by
Brubeck expressly for his interpreter, and a grand solo piano version of
"Rising Sun" from
Brubeck's
Jazz Impressions of Japan album. Aficionados of contemporary piano music will find much to savor and learn from this disc, and even
jazz people can establish connections to
Brubeck's other musical life. ~ Richard S. Ginell
