Jazz and classical music: A perfect symbiosis

Since the beginning of the 20th century, classical music has been nourished and enriched by other musical genres and styles. We find many examples with folklore or popular music: in Spain with flamenco, in Argentina with tango, in the United States with Jazz... It is this last relationship that we will be able to enjoy tonight.

In general, jazz and cultured music have been considered as two opposite poles within the musical sphere based on parameters such as: its popular origin, improvisation, its harmonic and rhythmic structures... However, from the beginning of jazz (which includes earlier styles such as ragtime) there has been an exchange of procedures with the composers of "cultured" music that have enriched both languages.

Despite the aforementioned, it must be taken into account that many times the use of jazz and folklore by classical composers comes more from an attraction to the exotic.

If we go to the beginnings of this relationship, in the decade of the 20s of the last century, it is when a real attempt to fuse jazz and classical music appears in what is called symphonic jazz. Undoubtedly the most important composer in this sense is George Gershwin (1898-1937) who inaugurated the genre with the opera Blue Monday (1922) and followed works such as the Rhapsody in blue (1924) that we will hear tonight and especially the opera Porgy and Bess (1935) considered the culmination of this style.

 At the opposite pole we find Claude Bolling (1930-2020) jazz performer and composer known for his suites (remember that it is a scheme of classical music) with jazz language but for classical instrumentalists. Among these we must highlight the flute suite, which we will also hear today, written and premiered for the great flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Considered to be of great virtuosity by the flautist, it consists of several movements imitating the style of the baroque suites where we can appreciate the symbiosis of baroque elegance with the most modern swing.
It is rarely performed due to the technical difficulty of the soloist.