Two more concerts at the Spitalfields Festival tonight: pure Monteverdi at 6.30pm (sold out) and then at 8.30pm our Monteverdi collaboration with jazz pianist Julian Joseph, who has also established himself as a jazz pioneer in the classical world. He was the first jazz musician to be invited to give a series of all-acoustic concerts at London's most prestigious classical venue, the Wigmore Hall. He has recorded duets by Milhaud, Stravinsky and Poulenc with Brazilian pianist Marcelo Bratke, combining them with his own arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea and Bill Evans, and collaborated with concert violinist Viktoria Mullova on her fusion project, 'Through the Looking Glass'. As a soloist, he has given recitals of Bartók and Prokofiev sonatas and performed Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and the Rhapsody in Blue with some of the most renowned symphony orchestras in Europe. At the same time, Julian's own classically-oriented work never ventures too far away from his jazz focus. This is particularly evident in his writing for big band and strings or full symphony orchestra, in which he demonstrates an exceptional ability to orchestrate complex textures of rhythm and sound without losing the essential groove that is at the heart of jazz.
In this way he is ever pushing the boundaries, whilst building on the legacy of the great jazz composers ~ Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock and Jaco. The bass player tonight is Mark Hodgson. Details here (a few tickets still available as I write).
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