B-A-C-H Dieter Ilg

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750):
• 1 931 04:28
• 2 Goldberg B 02:22
• 3 Siciliano 05:16
• 4 Air 04:56
• 5 Goldberg C 03:18
• 6 Präludium XII 05:15
• 7 Sarabande 03:54
• 8 Präludium VII 04:30
• 9 Goldberg A 04:43
• 10 1052 04:12
• 11 Goldberg H 03:49
• 12 924 05:20
• Total Runtime 52:03

Info for B-A-C-H

Ilg, once again, has taken the work of an old master and made it sound new and fresh. “B-A-C-H” has a depth about it, and yet is completely approachable.

Dieter Ilg is among the leading jazz bassists in the world. An exceptionally gifted player, he has, for example, worked with Randy Brecker, Charlie Mariano, and the Mangelsdorff/Dauner Quintet, and also currently has a duo with Till Brönner. However, it is above all his own projects that have defined him. In these he has explored his classical roots and transferred them into jazz with intent, thoroughness and consistency. In 2009 he formed a trio with pianist Rainer Böhm and drummer Patrice Héral, and together they fulfilled Ilg's long-cherished wish to re-conceive Guiseppe Verdi’s “Otello” according to his own musical conception of the work.

He took a very different route from the over-mechanistic “third stream” of the 60s and 70s. He also avoided the kind of arrangement by which classical music was shrink-wrapped for the swing or pop markets. His ventures, loved by audiences and critics alike, are a freewheeling and completely convincing combination of the melodies and structures of classical music with the rhythmic and harmonic free spirit of jazz. The success of this first project stemmed from a winning combination of factors: meticulous preparation, a compelling creative vision and a trio that played together until everything they played became second nature. Armed with the right formula, Ilg then addressed Wagner’s “Parsifal”, followed by “Mein Beethoven”. He received an ECHO Jazz award for all of these three albums, and earned praise from critics, including the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Their critic wrote that Ilg had managed to get “difficult old Beethoven singing and swinging in a way that nobody had done before.”

And now he continues with “B-A-C-H”. Ilg’s focus is J.S. Bach, the mighty creative force of the baroque era, whose compositions would determine the subsequent course of western classical music. Bach also set in motion the rediscovery of classical music through jazz, notably with Jacques Loussier. For many jazz musicians, Bach serves as a base camp for explorations of classical music, but Dieter Ilg has preferred to make him wait his turn. “Perhaps it’s because I enjoy putting the cart before the horse,” he quips. “Some people don’t believe it, but Bach is no actually easier to adapt than, say, Beethoven. It is simply another process, but it's firmly based on what we developed in our earlier adaptations.”

Ilg grew up in a family of amateur classical musicians, and became familiar with Bach’s music from a very early age. Violin practice loomed large for him as a young boy, as did playing in a lot of masses in churches: “It’s the typical background for someone who has grown up in Germany and had his practical musical strengths forged in the furnace of both normal school and music school lessons,” Ilg grins. He pursued his studies at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, from which he graduated on the classical double bass. He developed a particular fondness for the Casals versions of the solo cello suites of Bach, and also “for a while” for Glenn Gould’s recording of the Goldberg Variations. “Sometimes the mathematical genius side of Bach can be a turn-off; it was sometimes the case for me,” he admits. So what is both surprising and also totally convincing is the way the music hovers and luxuriates in the beauty of Bach’s melodies, and how a musical story can suddenly emerge out of these ‘pure’ structures. The points where Ilg as a jazz musician has felt himself the most at one with Bach was right at the cusp where the compositions themselves are suggesting variation and improvisation. Here, Ilg’s well-honed method took over: after a period of dedicated listening, he selected the repertoire they were going to play from Bach’s great oeuvre, wrote out the leadsheets, and then they played together, permitting each of the musicians to bring his ideas to the table. “All three of us is prepared to take risks, but each also knows he can completely trust the others. Musically as well as on a human level that is something very significant.” That group dynamic, and just as Ilg describes it, can be heard clearly on this new recording.

In his selection from Bach’s works, Ilg has not confined himself to the familiar. “Air” and “Siciliano” are the only two tracks on the album with the status of “hits”. There are four Goldberg Variations and two Preludes from the Clavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach “which every piano student knows. They were also the very first pieces I played on the piano, and they never leave you,” says Ilg. During his period of listening, pieces which seemed to leap up at him were the Harpsichord Concerto BWV1052 and the “Sarabande”, “which” says Ilg, “was ideal to make a song from.” The delicate tracery of Héral’s drumming seems to find its way of its own accord, whereas Ilg and Böhm – either solo or in unison, but always as equals – address the harmonic and rhythmic forms and spontaneously make something new from them. Ilg, once again, has taken the work of an old master and made it sound new and fresh. “B-A-C-H” has a depth about it, and yet is completely approachable.

Dieter Ilg, bass
Rainer Böhm, piano
Patrice Héral, drums

Dieter Ilg
Bassist Dieter Ilg is regarded today as one of a handful of European musicians who make their unmistakable musical style a valuable contribution to the projects they work on.

Whether it is as a internationally well-respected sideman or as band leader of his own ensembles: Ilg always combines the quality of the bass as a musical foundation with a graceful ease and expression that is rarely heard on a technically difficult instrument such as the double bass.

It is sometimes assumed that there are two kinds of bass players: those who “groove” and accompany (serving mainly as a rhythmic presence) or those who – freeing themselves of the serving role – strive to explore their artistic heights as a soloist (displaying their versatility as virtuoso improvisers). Unlike many Dieter Ilg combines the two ends of this spectrum.

His versatile, individual, passionate and tasteful voice has become a valuable contribution to the international jazz arena.

At the age of six Dieter Ilg – then an experienced recorder player (in kindergarten) – learned to play the violin and the viola before deciding to play the double bass at the age of thirteen.

After four years of lessons at the music school in his home town Offenburg Ilg went on searching for new teachers. He studied with Norbert Brenner ( solo double bass player of the SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden) and later on attended Jazz courses in Burghausen, Remscheid and Tübingen, working with a wide variety of instructors and professionals.

From 1981 until 1985 Ilg refined his practical skills as well as his theoretical knowledge with Prof. Wolfgang Stert at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. Winning the Fulbright scholarship then enabled him to study at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City (1986/1987).

At this time he was already skilled enough to understand the art of musical structure as it was conveyed to him by such masters as Eddie Gomez, Ron McClure, Rufus Reid, Adelhard Roidinger and Miroslav Vitous. It was also then that he made his further experiences on the stage as a member of the Joe Viera Sextett (1981 – 1984) as well as with his first trio-project, co-founded with Klaus Ignatzek. Not before long he had built up a busy schedule performing with such players as Bobby Watson or David Liebman.

It was Liebman who significantly influenced Ilg’s decision to stay on in New York for a while when he invited him to join the John Coltrane Memorial Concert in NYC in January 1987. The future began to look exciting.

Seizing the moment Ilg founded his first Trio with guitarist John Schröder and drummer Wolfgang Haffner shortly after returning from New York. He also became a member of the Randy Brecker Quintet (1987-89). Suddenly things were on a roll and he was awarded with the Baden-Württemberg Jazz Prize in 1988. The press said:

The brilliance and expression of his tone, the originality in the concept of his ensemble and his individual approach to harmony are fascinating.

Regular performances with the WDR Big Band (recordings with Bob Brookmeyer, John Abercrombie, Danny Gottlieb, Charlie Mariano, Peter Erskine, Nguyen Le, Vince Mendoza and others), frequent tours in europe (for example a tour of Spain with Bennie Wallace ) and a new line up to his own trio – this time including pianist Marc Copland – is what followed. These collaborations resulted in the production of three CD’s featuring drummers Bill Stewart, Ralph Penland and Jeff Hirshfield. ...

Booklet for B-A-C-H