St. Louis-based experimental jazz quartet Bach to the Future is apt to perform Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” with an Afro-Cuban flow ” and the possibility of a laser zap thrown in for good measure.
“It’s an oddball group,” keyboardist Mike Silverman admitted, albeit one committed to pushing its own musical boundaries through reinventing 300-year-old melodies with world rhythms and electric instruments.
INSTRUMENTAL MIX
With a keyboard worn like a guitar, a handmade Zendrum and an electric violin, the band can trigger thousands of sounds, from the organ or full string sections to glass breaking and snatches of “Star Wars.”
“(Rob Silverman’s) a ham so “¦ during his solos, he implies, you know, Darth Vader and all kinds of stuff,” Mike Silverman said.
MUSICAL OBJECTIVE
While the band’s self-titled 2005 CD covers “Ave Maria” to “Minuet in G,” a disc in the works will be even more experimental.
The goal, in the end, is “all about music education,” Silverman said.
“We’re all music teachers, so we talk a lot about different styles of music,” he said. “By mixing classical music with hipper styles ” jazz, Latin pieces, African rhythms ” it just makes people think.
“They’re learning about classical while they’re learning about various other rhythms, and then seeing that there isn’t a big difference between different styles. Classical music from 300 years ago actually has elements of Latin and jazz.” “Emily Jerman
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2007.