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Jazz Meets the Classics album cover

Album guide

Jazz Meets the Classics

Paquito D’Rivera

Released
2014
Label
Paquito Records
Forces
Clarinet, Saxophone, Trumpet, Piano
Personnel
Paquito D’Rivera soprano saxophone and clarinet, Diego Urcola trumpet and valve trombone, Alex Brown piano, Oscar Stagnaro electric bass, Arturo Stable percussion, Mark Walker drums, with Pepe Rivero piano on tracks 8, 9 and 10

Paquito D’Rivera traces the idea behind Jazz Meets the Classics to his father’s small Silvertone record player. A classical saxophonist who loved jazz but could not improvise, Tito D’Rivera played Benny Goodman’s chamber trio back to back with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, deliberately giving his son both worlds at once.

Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York in 2012, the album carries that childhood mixture into D’Rivera’s own band. His blues version of Mozart’s Adagio had already travelled with him for some forty years, since he first played it with Irakere; the finished album won the 2015 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Hear both

The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.

The originalsChopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Lecuona, Barrios · classical source works

The listening queues above follow the same order. The classical player omits tracks that are not based on a classical original.

Jazzed upPaquito D’Rivera · 2014
Open full album in Spotify

Spotify’s player is here for convenience; the full track listing below remains available to everyone.

Source works

The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.

  1. Fantasia ImpromptuChopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 66
  2. Beethoven PeruBeethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’: II. Adagio cantabile
  3. Paquito Introduces AdagioNon-classical source
  4. AdagioMozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622: II. Adagio
  5. Die ZauberclarineteMozart: Die Zauberflöte, K. 620: the Queen of the Night’s aria
  6. Al Fin Te ViLecuona: ‘Al fin te vi’, a Cuban danza
  7. Las AbejasBarrios Mangoré: ‘Las abejas’
  8. Vals de la Media HoraChopin: Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64 No. 1, the ‘Minute’ waltz
  9. Nocturno en la CeldaChopin: Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2
  10. Pa BeboOriginal composition by Pepe Rivero
  11. E minor PreludeChopin: Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4