Actually, the Jewish Chamber Orchestra (JCOM) under the direction of Daniel Grossman in the Munich Kammerspiele theater had promised Jewish jazz after the event’s title. And from Benny Goodman to the founders of the renowned jazz label “Blue Note Records” to composers like George Gershwin, one could list many Jews who had a decisive influence on jazz. But does that make jazz Jewish?
Grossmann himself answered the question in the negative in his clever and amusing moderation of the evening, even if the composer Constant Lamberts he quoted regarded “the almost masochistic melancholy of the average foxtrot” as “typical of Jewish art”.
Instead of Jewish jazz, the JCOM presents chamber music influenced by jazz. The first composition of the evening, Shostakovich’s “Suite No. 1 for Jazz Orchestra” actually won a competition in 1934 that wanted to create Soviet jazz. Although this composition is more like vaudeville music, the orchestra manages to extract a certain jazz note from it. This is all the more remarkable as the so-called jazz orchestra turns all the musicians involved into soloists who complement each other with wonderful joy of playing but can never protect themselves.
When the JCOM then closes the evening with songs by Gershwin after Schulhoff’s “Hot Sonata” and a jazz suite for small orchestra by Martinú, it surprises once again. Whereas it had previously emphasized the jazz references of chamber music, thanks to the exciting arrangement by pianist Michael Wilhelmi, it now transforms proven jazz standards such as “Embraceable You” or “The Man I Love” into challenging chamber music, in which guest singer Jelena Kuljić joins in with her jazz singing first have to claim. The fact that she succeeds in this can be celebrated as another highlight of this highly luminous evening.