Scottish piano-saxophone partnership Euan Stevenson and Konrad Wiszniewski bring their “New Focus: the Classical Connection” presentation to Watermill Jazz in Dorking on Tuesday 16 January.
Pianist Euan Stevenson, who is the co-writer and musical director with award-winning singer Georgia Cécile, and Konrad Wiszniewski, a long-time feature in the Scottish National National Jazz Orchestra’s saxophone section and co-leader of current Jazz FM favourites Mama Terra, have been working together under the New Focus banner since 2011.
An Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival commission to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Stan Getz’s classic ‘with strings’ album, Focus, led to them forming a nonet – jazz quartet, string quartet and concert harp – and adding their own compositions to tracks from Focus in an enthusiastically received concert.
They subsequently recorded two albums of original music for Michael Janisch’s Whirlwind Recordings, New Focus and New Focus on Song, and have since worked in various configurations including nonet, jazz quartet and duo.
Their Classical Connection programme, which proved a hit at Lichfield Festival last summer, combines the Birmingham Conservatoire-trained Stevenson’s love of classical music and the duo’s acclaimed work in jazz.
“I’ve believed for a long time that there are many links between the two musical styles,” says Stevenson, whose achievements in classical music include commissions for internationally renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra. “Classical composers and jazz composers often tend to favour the same keys and the influence of composers such as Debussy and Satie on jazz musicians including Miles Davis and Bill Evans is quite marked.”
These connections are pointed out with witty, informative links but Stevenson is particularly concerned that the Classical Connection isn’t seen as a lecture recital.
“We’re jazz musicians, so improvisation plays a big part in these concerts,” he says. “We might have fun improvising a two-part, Bach style take on a Gershwin standard but we like to emphasise the groove possibilities and bring as much of the jazz tradition to bear as possible.”
Music runs in Stevenson’s family. His grandmother, on whose Steinway piano Stevenson composes, was the first woman to graduate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Glasgow. One of her cousins was the film soundtrack conductor Muir Mathieson, who conducted the music from Brief Encounter among more than a thousand other films. And another cousin was the composer Cedric Thorpe Davie, who studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Zoltán Kodály and designed St Andrews University’s music course.
Stevenson’s jazz experience includes concerts with guitarist Jim Mullen, fellow pianist Dave Newton and singers Tina May and Zoe Francis and tutoring Scottish piano star Fergus McCreadie. He’s a keen student himself, constantly learning from the masters – Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner and Bill Evans are favourites – as well as honing his own style and composition skills.
“It’s been great to see that the idea behind the Classical Connection travels,” says Stevenson. “The audience in Lichfield were quite vociferous in their praise and the festival director gave us a glowing reference. What’s particularly pleasing about the Classical Connection is that it seems to work in different situations – be they jazz clubs or chamber music concerts. It’s really about communicating and we’re really looking forward to presenting it for Watermill Jazz.”