Nigel Kennedy - Plays Jazz (1984)

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Nigel Kennedy - Plays Jazz (1984)

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Nigel Kennedy - Plays Jazz (1984)
Label: Chandos | MP3 320 KB/s | Covers | Total Time: 54:55 | 139 MB
Genre: Jazz Instrumental Violin

In this day and age of unspontaneous music making, even in the fields of pop and jazz music, Peter Pettinger and I for this disc, at least, were totally unrehearsed. And I hope that the spontaneity which arose because of this has more than made up for the lack of rehearsal. I, certainly, can imagine having spent far more time and worry on a worse disc … but let me tell you how the disc came to be in the first place:
To be honest, I suppose I should say I am more well known as a classical musician, and it was in this guise that Peter Pettinger and I went happily to the pub having just finished recording the Elgar sonata and pieces four hours ahead of schedule. After a drink we both felt like playing again and Brian Couzens (our producer) was game enough to come and record us. My years playing with Stephane Grappelli and in clubs in New York have left me with an insatiable appetite for playing jazz (and, incidentally, any other kind of music) and since Peter Pettinger is such a tremendous jazz pianist we decided to play a few standards. Here is what we came up with, completely unrehearsed and unedited. Stephane Grappelli often used to call me his musical grandson, so 1 hope he likes this disc but will allow his "grandson" to misbehave once in a while…Nigel Kennedy

As one of the most successful classical performers of his time, violinist Nigel Kennedy's genre-defying music helped him achieve a level of fame typically reserved for pop stars. A native of Brighton, England, he studied music at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at Juilliard; his debut recording, Elgar Violin Concerto, appeared in 1984, shortly followed by Nigel Kennedy Plays Jazz. In the years to follow, Kennedy collaborated not only with the more traditional likes of Riccardo Muti and the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Andre Previn, but also with pop figures including Paul McCartney and Kate Bush; his fame reached new heights with the 1989 release of his recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, which went as high as number three on the U.K. pop charts and went on to sell well over a million copies. In 1992, neck surgery forced Kennedy to retire for several years; when he resurfaced with 1996's Kafka, he performed his own compositions for the first time, broadening his scope to include not only classical music but also elements of Celtic, rock, and jazz. The Jimi Hendrix tribute The Kennedy Experience followed in 1999.