Krassport: "The Planets - Discovering Gustav Holst"

After having encountered the most versatile Jazz Standards in a deconstructionist way, Krassport now enters the realms of late romantic orchestral music with its unusual trio instrumentation. The Subject is the orchestral suite "The Planets" by Gustav Holst.

To deconstruct means to alienate, to completely tear apart the original; it means saying what the original didn't say.
That way, "The Planets" becomes a piece of music that still contains the sophistication of the original, but also acts freely in a typical jazz way. Unusual sounds, large forms, grooves and parts the remind of 20th century classical music in one second and of Free Jazz a moment later; all this comes together without being ecletic.

"The Planets" is program music. Each one of the 7 movements of the original illustrates Holst's associations with the 7 planets in a musical way. Pluto hadn't been discovered at that time; Earth is out of bounds due to the fact that Holst illustrates the planets in an astrological way, not an astronomic one. That way, Mars becomes "The Bringer of War", Neptune is "The Mystic" etc.

Gustav Holst wrote the original suite from 1914 to 1916. Even though the suite itself is late romantic, there are influences of Stravinski and Debussy. The Planets itself had - due to its colorful orchestration and the programmatic approach - a large influence on movie score composers, among them John Williams, Hans Zimmer and James Horner.

Exactly this colorful orchestration with large symphony orchestra, organ and woman's choir is transported to a jazz trio, consisting of grand piano, electric guitar and drums. In the trio, too, all the colors are explored: In addition to regular playing, the piano is prepared and played on the strings; the guitar uses an octaver effect to inherit the bass role by the push of a button; the drum set lacks a bass drum, but is extended with a metal bowl and glockenspiel.

The picturesque melodies are adopted in parts, yet still the free-jazzy approach of Krassport is maintained. Highly energetic, almost cacophonic parts alternate with lyric simplicity.

With "The Planets", Krassport builds bridges: From classical music to jazz. Jazz can be notated, definite and complex; the strict parameters of classical music can be taken freely!

In the end, a piece of music comes into existence that contains the sophistication of the original, but also acts freely in a typical jazz way.