BRANDENBURG 22 REMBRANDT; BRANDENBURG 23 VERMEER

Musicians know the special feeling of connecting with the rhythm and style of a person moved by your music.  You feed off this audience.  You move it and it moves you.  Performing the re-write of the Brandenburg Concertos in isolation, as we did, Vermeer’s “Girl With a Red Hat” and 

“Girl With A Pearl Earring” were my audience, my muses. I love their eyes.  

The 10,000 hours it took to re-write and record the Brandenbug 300 Project constantly asked the question whether Bach would be pleased with our changes.  This was a kind of imaginary conversation that challenged every artistic, intellectual and spiritual notion we had by a composer famous, like Charlie Mingus, for stabbing a lead horn player for missing notes in the solo.  Rembrandt’s “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer’ was the image of that conversation.

 
From the Brandenburg 300 Project, the music is: Brandenburg 22 Rembrandt, featuring Albert Wing; and, Brandenburg 23 Vermeer, featuring Mike Miller.  Bob Danziger plays the EWI and the recordings were mixed at Abbey Road.  The music is a jazz classical crossover version of the 2nd and 3rd movements of the Brandenburg Concerto #2, using instruments and recording techniques not available in Bach's time.