Uwe Korn – författare

''Christmas Meets Jazz'' contains 15 popular Christmas carols in jazzy arrangements for the piano and continues the successful ''… Meets Jazz'' series by the composer-arranger Uwe Korn. The styles of this edition range from jazz ballads to rocking and swinging rhythms to the lively ''Jingle Bells Samba''. Jazz up your Christmas!

This volume contains a wide selection of famous musical themes from Bach to Carl Orff. Some of them were originally written for the piano; most have had their scores carefully arranged to make them easy to play on the piano. Each piece is followed with a jazz interpretation, which can either be played alone or alongside the ''original'' version.Perhaps this will show that the ''classics'' are not all that far removed from jazz, and that music of earlier periods contains many of the essential characteristics of jazz. Doesn''t Lully''s ''Gavotte'', for instance, contain one of the most famous jazz themes ever? The ''Blue Gavotte'' may make this clearer. The theme from Mozart''s Sonata in A major (K 331) doesn''t require many rhythmic changes to give it a blues flavour (''Mozart Goes Blues''). The driving rhythm of the ostinato bass in Carl Orff''s ''O Fortuna'' would suit modern jazz-rock performers well, with a few small changes (''A Fortune for a Tune''). What do Bizet''s ''Habanera'', Brahms'' ''Hungarian Dance No. 5'' and Paganini''s ''Caprice No. 24'' have in common? Why have they been turned into salsa music (''Habanera con Cigarro'', ''Hungarian Salsa No. 5'', ''Capriccio Latino'')? Much of this is up to the individual: if you want to discover similarities, they are easy to find.

14 famous themes from music history, from Bach to Offenbach, each with its own jazzy interpretation - just as in Vol. 1. This edition shows that ''classical music'' and jazz are not that distant from one another after all. Just imagine Grieg''s Piano Concerto played on a bandoneon - and you have got the perfect tango! Brahms'' Hungarian Dance No. 1 is also ideal as a salsa (''Hungarian Salsa No.1''). Schubert''s trout suffers a terrible fate, here it may continue to live in a lively ragtime (''Fish Rag''). With Mozart, the night is merry and friendly. but ''A Black Night Music'' shows its dark side.

The fact that classical music and jazz are not mutually exclusive is proven by the new volume in the popular series by Uwe Korn: For the tune book, 10 classical themes have been carefully arranged for flute and piano and made into jazz pieces for two. Great fun to play.