Baroque, Blues and Beyond

St Cecilia's Hall 15/8/26

Hilary Michael, violin/sax, Richard Michael, piano

In Conversation: Baroque, Blues and Beyond is one of the Sounds of St Cecilia’s series

Many here in the lovely oval Sypert Hall have exceptional musical knowledge, but I'd lay odds that every one of them learned something new this afternoon. Hilary Michael and Richard Michael are top-notch musicians and genial educationalists with a message to impart about music: whatever genre you work in, the notes are the same, and you learn to play by using your ears.

With 50 years as Leader of the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra, Richard is a major UK educator in jazz improvisation, a pianist and a composer for orchestras, chamber groups and big bands. Hilary, with a degree in violin and saxophone, has worked with the Dunedin Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music and is involved in jazz education. They start off with a Bach/ Autumn Leaves combination, Hilary playing ornately decorated Bach swapping with Richard who plays his cool jazz piano, encouraging himself with 'Yeahs' of approval.

Gershwin, Richard says, is, like Bach, a fantastic improviser, whose first job as a music-shop song plugger taught him you don't just work from the notes on the page: when someone brought in a compositions, he demonstrated how it would sound in different keys, rhythms and styles. They play Gershwin's 'The Man I Love,' 'Lady be Good' and 'Summertime', both now in jazz style, alternating duets with one or other taking a solo turn . Terrific sounds from both!

They then try out the idea of Chick Corea colliding with Henry Purcell, as the bass line used by Purcell was the same as that used in jazz. Richard gives us a quick rundown on scales – those used in classical music – major and minor – and some of those used in jazz. How about the Spanish Frigian scale – the scale of A minor beginning on the fifth note? This leads to a version of Purcell's curtain tune from 'Timon of Athens'; turned into a Latin-American jazz duet.

A reference to Duke Ellington leads to discussion of more scales and Joe Temperley, Fife-born baritone sax-player who worked with Wynton Marsalis's Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Orchestra and was name- checked in the JLCO' s celebratory Ellington concert this week. Temperley had worked with Richard's Fife jazz players and he showed them how he practised, rattling off at speed the whole range of scales and arpeggios on his sax. Pause for astonishment from that youthful audience. “Then,” he said, “Ah get off ma exercise bike.”

They play Ellington numbers, Hilary now on her saxophone with beautifully trills in 'Sunset and Mockingbird', and playing an improvised line in 'Take the A Train' with Richard on the melody. The concert ends to enthusiastic applause.

Before the encore, Richard talks about his background in traditional dance music, as his father played in a Scottish Country Dance band in the north east. Back on her fiddle, Hilary joins Richard on piano in a medley of dance tunes played so fast they recall the frenzy of the 128-some reel in George MacDonald Fraser's 'The General Danced at Dawn'. Familiar tunes, with half-remembered names, race by ending with 'Kate Dalrymple', the signature tune to the Scottish dance radio programme played on Saturday nights (after the pools coupons had been checked).

Now home to try that Spanish Frigian scale on the piano...

This concert is the second of five in the 'Sounds of St Cecilia's' series, organised by the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall. On Wednesday 19th August at 3pm there's a celebration of Spanish music on two harpsichords. For details of this and the other concerts see: https://friendsofstceciliashall.com/events-new/