Have a minute? (You'll be glad you did.)

Actually, four. And only a few seconds.

We thought we knew Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" pretty well, having listened to it countless times. But we'd not yet heard Jon Batiste lend it some Blues, as he does in his new album, Beethoven Blues. Prepare for creative genius.

Vould Ludvig vig out? Ich glaube nicht. 

The way Batiste so easily, even casually veers classical Beethoven into bluesy B.B. and jazzy Brubeck is utterly captivating. After I listened to the variation a few times it almost seemed as though the composer had written it this way, with its characteristic flats and, in Batiste's manner, quite subtle syncopation.   

On that last note (terrible pun), and moving to another genre, the note itself is what in my book made Led Zeppelin the greatest of all rock bands. Where Batiste uses syncopation sparingly in the sonata, Zeppelin used it extensively (universally?). Merely two examples, "Kashmir" and "Black Dog."

Give them another listen, only this time while paying special attention to the beats' displacements. Kashmir is positively mind-blowing in 4/4 time (with six beats), riff guitar in 3/4 time, percussion (by the supernal John Bonham) providing syncopation's motherload in 2/4 time with a 9/8 measure thrown in — all of it coming out, somehow, in perfect time. Black Dog: 4/4 time but also 5/4, 2/4, and again with Bonham driving the syncopation.

Enough of that, I've trailed way off track, I'll stop before you begin thinking I know what I'm talking about. Sorry, I'm no music critic. But I know musical genius when I hear it — so what say we hear it one more time, this time Batiste's Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 Stomp."

(Regular programming may resume tomorrow.)

Comments

[Anne J]

The Symphony No. 5 Stomp blew my mind.