Jon Batiste’s Beethoven Blues + Kitti’s I Walk Away – track of the week

Beethoven’s instant familiarity is a stumbling bock

You get the jazz language fed in with bluesy licks and great instrumentalism from the multi-Grammy winning New Orleans star pianist Jon Batiste on this solo piano album.

Of course he is a great player. But really what’s so mind blowing about doing a jazz version of the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ and world famous Beethoven melodies that have been knocking around for centuries? Notions of providing an update are peculiar to say the least.

Go hear straight classical

‘Dusklight Movement’ I liked a tiny bit and the ‘7th Symphony Elegy’ is OK.

Advertisement

But really if you just want to go off – if in a Beethoven mood – to listen to classical music then do so played by a symphony orchestra or hear a recording by a master of the idiom like Daniel Barenboim playing the sonatas.

TV audience

What’s here is mass market obviously crossover fare not really aimed at jazz fans at all I would have thought. Beethoven Blues is more for TV audiences who don’t care what they listen to but like the gladiatorial combat of a talent show. Handy then given that Batiste will be a mentor on The Piano.

Batiste’s theme from ‘American Symphony’ is included among these Beethoven reimaginings, a marketing word if ever there was one. I just wanted the album to stop!

Far better: Kitti’s blistering ‘I Walk Away’ – track of the week