Peterson, 8 Bar Boogie Blues

And now for something completely different. Yes, we’ve featured things other than “classical” music in this series—an occasional folk song (more to come) and some jazz. It may seem like a divergence, but it’s a small one. The various music genres often overlap. Maybe the only real isolation occurs among fans of pop music who think of “classical” as old, dead, fussy, elite, with little or nothing to offer.

Our pick last week featured the pianist Gerard Aimontche playing Handel. Naturally, when I find something interesting I want to look to see what else the performer has to offer. In this case, I found videos of Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Gluck . . . and Oscar Peterson.

Oscar Peterson (1925-2007) studied “classical” piano at a very serious level. It’s not so unusual for a jazz or pop musician to have serious training. Jazz differs from much of pop music however in its complexity and virtuosity. So a jazz musician needs a strong mastery of his instrument plus a facility for improvisation and an understanding of jazz’s musical vocabulary. The term “jazz” defies a simple definition, but the many forms of jazz all rely heavily on improvisation.

I don’t have hard data to back this up, but I think we are finding more classical musicians who see jazz and improvisation as a natural extension of their repertoire. You might say Aimontche has a foot in each camp. Or, more interestingly, you might wonder if they are really different camps.