Jazz and classical. How many times have you heard a piece of music combining these styles described as "crossover," as if no genuine fusion between the two is really possible?
That fusion happened on Saturday afternoon at the Crooners Lounge and Supper Club, where Minneapolis composer Jeremy Walker's new "Jazz Art Songs" were premiered.
Walker is a staple of the Twin Cities jazz scene, and his seven new songs were written specifically for mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski and tenor Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, both of whose careers are firmly rooted in classical territory.
Two songs came out of a previous collaboration between Walker and the early music group Consortium Carissimi. "Alma Gentil" was sung with gentle sensuality by Osowski, while in the melodically seductive "Qualhor la Mano" she was shadowed by Wondemagegnehu's sweetly supportive harmony.
A different type of harmony — fractured, indeterminate, probing in the murk — underpinned Osowski's mezza voce account of "Haunted Blues," to words by Twin Cities writer Greg Foley.
Far from being strophic, with each successive verse the same as the last, "Haunted Blues" was more open-plan melodically, with the character of a classical recitativo.
Structurally, Walker pushed the envelope even further in "Open Road," its travelogue of life events extending into a sizable coda, substantially beyond the tramlines of a typical jazz or popular composition.
Jeremy Walker accompanied the singers tastefully on piano, playing mainly from jazz charts and extemporizing occasional, rippling solos.
