The New Goldberg Variations CD REVIEW
“To be sure, nothing about Chindamo’s work sounds particularly jazzy. Instead, however, it at least suggests that, during his lifetime, Bach himself may have picked up a violin and started playing along while one of his pupils (probably one of his sons) was playing music from BWV 988 at the keyboard. In other words the only justification for “new” in the title is that neither Bach nor anyone after him ever took the trouble to legitimize such a form of “jamming” by documenting it! Thus, Chindamo’s achievement is less impressive for its “novelty” and more for its power to invoke a process that may have occupied Bach himself when he was holding a violin rather than sitting at a keyboard.”
–Stephen Smoliar, Examiner.com, USA August 2015.
“The New Goldberg Variations CD REVIEW
This latest set of Goldbergs comes to us from Australia. Zoe Black, violin and Joe Chindamo, piano have created a conversation between instruments rather than between hands…The result is delightful and inspirational. I forgot all about the monumentalness of the original and became lost in this modern Baroque fantasy. I listened to it 3 times on my commute last week. Need a great gift for a music lover? Look no further.”
Gail Fischler, Pianoaddict.com, USA, September 1, 2015
The New Goldberg Variations CD REVIEW
For all that I am fully satisfied and elated with this recording. It is a must for all Bachaholics as well as anybody looking for a new sonic experience. Bravo!”
Grego Applegate Edwards, Classicalmodermusic.blogspot.com, USA October 1, 2015
LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE
DIDO’S LAMENT CD REVIEW
Fabulous violin and piano disc, just don’t ask what genre it is. Joe Chindamo is a jazz pianist with the chops of a Russian virtuoso; Zoë Black is a versatile classical fiddler who has played with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, inter alia. The opening track of their third album forms a manifesto of sorts. Scarlatti’s Sonata in G Major is given a sparkling re-arrangement: the violin ostensibly takes the “melody”, but really plucks voices from the stave and tosses them back against the piano. This isn’t jazz; it’s just having fun with music. The titular Lament gets a thorough update with some seemingly improvised passages – perhaps a coy allusion to the ornamentation native to a da capo aria.
Jazz gets its own guernsey in Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So – a rather André Previn-y arrangement, with all the dazzling pianism that suggests. Then out of the blue arrives a totally straight, but rather lovely, reading of Prokofiev’s Five Melodies for Violin and Piano. Instead of breaking down boundaries, this duo appears not to notice them. I wouldn’t even label this “crossover”: the brilliantly eerie version of Nessun Dorma – occupying a conceptual space somewhere between muzak and Messiaen – is anything but a nod to popular taste.
This recording is so brimming with creativity it’s a delight to hear, and the duo must be lauded for forging a style entirely their own.
Francis Merson, editor of Limelight Magazine
The Age: Dido’s Lament Concert REVIEW
Melbourne Recital Centre
July 30 2014
The Age, Sydney Morning Herald – Joel Carnegie
In a concert breaking out of the confines of 20th century musical composition compartmentalisation, pianist Joe Chindamo and violinist Zoe Black combined forces for a mixture of original and arranged works at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Chindamo, as a prolific arranger and orchestrator from a jazz idiom background, constructed these new works, and intertwined original motifs and thoughts of Bach, Elgar, Scarlatti and others, with a contemporary sense of spaciousness and sparkle.
The sense of ease of his performance was complemented with an elegant display of violin virtuosity from Black. In presenting a number of world premieres in this concert, the dynamic duo’s raison d’etre is its commitment to presenting new music, in particular, an expansion of the authentic repertoire for violin and piano.
In this concert, two major additions to the repertoire were presented – a three-movement Sonata for Violin and Piano depicting the human experience of an ever-changing modern world, as well as two Bach inspired installments from a forthcoming book of preludes by Chindamo. The first of the two preludes offered an airily light working of Bach styled fragments with Chindamo and Black combining in pleasant fashion, while the second enabled an abstraction of Bach’s Prelude No. 2.
Two other arrangements/compositions by Chindamo included Sketches of A Blue Moon (inspired by popular jazz tune Blue Moon) and Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas. While both works were of particular note, Chindamo and Black excelled in Purcell’s Lament, offering tenderly sad interplays and mournful harmonies in this popular work.
Concert Review Melbourne Recital Centre
SEDUCTION & SURRENDER
Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo
Melbourne Recital Centre, September 18
Clive O’Connell The Age
It might seem an unlikely duo: a violinist formerly occupying a leading role with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Freshwater (now Firebird) Trio, playing with one of the country’s top-layer jazz pianists. But partners Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo have collaborated for the last two years in a genial and mellifluous style of music, for the most part a hybrid, but informed by a thorough musicality and wide-ranging originality.
What they played at Wednesday’s recital was Chindamo’s work, chiefly in deft arrangements. On a few occasions the composer enjoyed the mildest of manipulations, a standout being the recital’s last piece: Variation 13 from Bach’s Goldberg Variations which Chindamo played straight while Black’s violin added a stylistically consonant extra line.
Against that came Puccini’s Nessun dorma aria which ambled along for some time before the first familiar fragments emerged. Both performers took their time in the sun, working through a diet of Handel’s Ombra mai fu, When I am laid from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the Chopin E minor Prelude transformed into a tango, and Schumann’s Traumerei taking on unusual harmonic complexity.
Interleaved with these popular classics, Chindamo displayed his inventiveness in versions of Weill’s September Song and the Earle Hagen/Dick Rogers standard Harlem Nocturne, which featured brilliant headlong unison work from the executants. But the standout proved to be Chindamo’s own Spiegelhaus, an extended rondo-like revel marrying exuberance and placidity with admirable skill.
Reimaginings CD REVIEW
Joe Chindamo is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and arranger while Zoe Black is one of the leading classical violinists of her generation. Their collaboration on Reimaginings is a beautiful collision of musical styles resulting in a new genre that defies definition. The result is the product of two artists creating a musical dialogue with a combined language. It is tempestuous, passionate, romantic and full of surprises – largely the re-invention of works by the great classical masters such as Bach, Mozart and Chopin. These tracks sit comfortably alongside the country classic Jolene and two Chindamo originals including Zoe, which Joe wrote for his partner.
Dr. Chris Dench ,Composer/ Classical Music Reviewer
Concert Review: Australian Festival of Chamber Music
Gillian Wills
Australian Chamber Music Festival Townsville Review
Standout concerts included It Ain’t Necessarily So, a collaboration between stunning violinist Zoe Black and virtuosic crossover pianist Joe Chindamo, who demonstrated how other people’s music can be reimagined and reharmonised.
The approach was as refreshing as the gusty wind that blew across the crowd and pummeled the marquee’s roof in Jupiter Hotel’s manicured garden. Chindamo’s revamp of Dido’s Lament was particularly persuasive.
Daily Telegraph
Dido’s Lament CD REVIEW
Musical and life partners Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo
have released their first album on their own label
Mo’OzArt, Dido’s Lament (MOZ001).
This follows on from their highly acclaimed Reimaginings. The couple blend classical, jazz and original music in a refreshing and exciting way which, unlike many “fusion” or “crossover” projects, manages to take the best from each genre to create anew.
It helps that both are consummate musicians – Black is best known for her regular appearances as a violinist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and pianist Chindamo is equally at home on the classical and jazz stage.
He is an ARIA-winning composer and arranger, both of which skills he brings to the table on this excellent new album.
Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo’s album Dido’s Lament has been released on the new Mo’OzArt label.
The classical components are varied. They cover Baroque masters Domenico Scarlatti (two superbly executed keyboard sonatas), Handel’s evergreen Ombra ma fui and the swooningly melancholic title track, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, as well as a fresh take on Puccini’s Nessun Dorma.
At the heart of the album is a straight, untickled version of Prokofiev’s Five Melodies for Violin and Piano.
Spiegelhaus is a substantial new work by Chindamo. The title translates as Theatre or Playhouse and it is an episodic 10-minute piece with frequent musical scenery shifts.
Two works by jazz giants George Gershwin (It Ain’t Necessarily So) and Duke Ellington (Harlem Nocturne) bring the disc to a satisfying close.
Article: Classic Melbourne Suzanne Yanko 3 June 2016
With the greatest respect, Joe Chindamo and Zoe Black are a publicist’s dream. Both are accomplished performers in their genres – composer/pianist and classical violin respectively – and partners in real life as well as on stage. And it must be said, easy on the eye. Even their names seem to belong together. The irony is, this pair do not need promotion. Their music speaks for itself. It’s been described as a commitment to new music, with a daring disregard for boundaries. But it defies such pigeonholing.
From the Yass Music Club to New York’s Carnegie Hall, and many times at venues such as tonight’s – the Salon at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo enjoy audience drawing power and an exceptional warmth and respect from their colleagues as well. A tribute from trumpeter James Morrison (published on their website) sums it up: “When two great artists collaborate, you expect a magnificent result. What you don’t expect, what you can’t even imagine, is the transcendent experience that awaits you when under the spell of Zoe Black and Joe Chindamo.”
For just one night this week at the Salon, an audience had the entirely pleasurable task of putting Morrison’s words to the test. They were not disappointed. Most of the music was described as “world premieres from Joe’s pen” and the music composed or chosen by Chindamo both showed how diverse their music is but also suggested how each has extended his or her musicality because of being part of this duo.
The opening work, American Spirit, could hardly have illustrated this better. The violin lent itself as an instrument equally to the brightness of Hootenanny and Tom and Jerry yet brought sweetness and solemnity to Hymn for Ground Zero. Violinist Black showed herself to be more than equal to Appellation’s challenge to while the composer gave her a beautiful solo in sensitive Huckleberry Friend. American Spirit also set the pattern for the evening: Joe as composer and performer, Black as interpreter of his music as well as fellow artist.
Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano was a perfect illustration of Chindamo’s skill at finding works to play to the performers’ strengths. The opening Allegretto sounded like two different pieces played simultaneously, but both at speed, with the ending delivering soft chords and a searching violin. The second movement was fittingly called Blues but it was the violin that had the solo (demonstrating pizzicato and percussive effects) while the piano grounded Black’s efforts yet accompanied the rhythm. Perpetuum mobile, the final movement, suggested music that was going to be fiery. It certainly was that! Black never faltered while Chindamo delivered staccato chords, in a performance that provoked huge applause.
Chindamo’s original composition Symbiosis was a reflection on war and, as he says, a manifesto against it. Mourning and celebration equally inform the piece, whose moods range from reflective beauty to a tonality that is more appealing than one might expect. Black was called on for a virtuoso performance, as was Chindamo himself. Both delivered.
Finally came Nine Lives of La Folia, described as nine short movements based on a 16th century harmonic sequence that had inspired conductors over the centuries, now including Chindamo himself. Beginning with a baroque sound from the violin and chords from the piano, it set the scene for variations, although each movement was a unique composition in itself. The second, Waiting, saw the piano at speed, imitated by the violin, with fury suggested by the tempo. Both performers were note perfect despite the demands on them.
Unrest articulated the melody to start but built to have a baroque intensity. Contrast came next, firstly with the reflective and sweet, piano solo, Solitude, then the harsh and virtuosic Demonic with every one of the pianist’s fingers busy on the keyboard. It was then the turn of Black to play the solo, Remembering, while both were inspired by the baroque again in Regal.
Judgment had a well-executed trill for the violin and the piano with the melody before the violin sped away. (At one point Chindamo appeared to be improvising, but this was very smooth and only suggested by the lack of notation at that point on his score – as observed from our vantage point immediately behind the piano!) Ending an evening of contrasts, it was back to solemn and slow to end.
Then, for an encore, a treat: Number 13 of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the subject of a forthcoming CD from this pair. Delivered with their distinctive style it will certainly be popular with tonight’s audience and the many others who appreciate the unique duo that is Joe & Zoe.
