Schimmel Center to Welcome Stewart Copeland & Jon Kimura Parker, 4/8
By: Tyler Peterson Mar. 21, 2016
On the genre-smashing program Off the Score founder and drummer of The Police, Stewart Copeland, teams up with another musical iconoclast, the concert pianist Jon Kimura "Jackie" Parker. Together they perform original works and amp up some of the great pieces from the classical canon including Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and Piazzolla's Oblivion. Add in jazz pianist Mike Garson's Paganini Variations and a wild arrangement of an Aphex Twin tune and the annihilation of genre is complete!
The driving force behind Off the Score is the exploration of the intersection of the notes on the page-'the bible' in the classical world-with the improvisational instincts of the rock and jazz musician. It is the rare classical musician that can improvise, as it is the rare rock musician who reads music. Here, all of these musicians can do both.
To realize their vision, Copeland and Parker have enlisted three other free-minded music stars: violinist Yoon Kwon, who plays for the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and shines with rock swagger when she gets the chance to rise from the pit and plug in; double bassist Marlon Martinez, a Stanley Clarke protégé who gets his kicks equally from Mahler and Mingus; and Judd Miller, the Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI) virtuoso who can summon an entire wind section with his singular breath.
Using his typical self-effacing wit, Copeland describes the programme as half originals and half "classics written by composers long dead enough so that they won't rise from their graves." But audiences will surely rise to their feet during Parker's white hot arrangement of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, which injects large doses of primitive scandal back into Stravinsky's now canonic warhorse. Another standout is Copeland's original work Celeste, which puts the spotlight on Copeland's signature snare sound and emphasis on the groove. When reviewing the program at the 21C Music Festival last May, the Toronto Star wrote, "So was this jazz or classical? I would say neither. But who cares what you call it, as long as it feels right."
Videos