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SUPPORT ME ON PATREON\n\nWATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE\n\nThere\u2019s a frame of mind that insists that the connections between genres are tangential & theoretical at best. Of course, MUSIC is not a GENRE is out to debunk that myth. It\u2019s hard enough to battle that mindset in the popular realm \u2013 like how country people don\u2019t like hip hop or rock people don\u2019t like dance. Those boundaries are blurring more & more, thankfully, because of the mish-mosh that is the internet and especially because of young artists like Breland or Rina Sawayama, who don\u2019t see a reason to stay \u201cpure\u201d.\n\nWhen it comes to so-called \u201chighbrow\u201d music \u2013 a distinction I reject, by the way \u2013 the bias is even stronger. There seems to be a need for high minded people to cling to a false sense of purity in their chosen music. Lovers of classical \u2013 or more accurately orchestral \u2013 music tend to dismiss anything written from at least Stravinsky onward, if not before. Jazz heads are often so strict about what\u2019s considered jazz that they\u2019ll dismiss all but one or two sub-classifications. Like how Wynton Marsalis once claimed that if a song wasn\u2019t rooted in a blues structure then it\u2019s not jazz.\n\nThere have been, and always will be, people who are open to blends & mashups & cross-pollination, and people who need very solid & high walls to keep out anything they feel doesn\u2019t fit. But if you\u2019re a true lover of MUSIC \u2013 the history & development, the taxonomy and Darwinian evolution \u2013 then you know that ALL WALLS ARE FALSE, and have been SINCE FOREVER.\n\nIf jazz is defined by improv, then are rock guitar solos jazz? If classical is defined by a strict interpretation of written notes, then how do you reconcile the hard fact that Liszt and Chopin and Mozart and even Bach were all known for their dazzling improvisational skills? We think classical music was always set in stone because we only inherited the sheet music. SO not true.\n\nJacques Loussier knew this, and his music is one of the greatest embodiments of the porous boundaries between jazz & classical. He was known for interpreting the works of Bach, Vivaldi, Satie and many others, adding lots of improv in with the familiar melodies, harmonies & rhythms. He was a French pianist whose melding of jazz & classical was known as \u201cthird stream\u201d, a term that\u2019s been around since the 1950s. Even though these venerable works don\u2019t need a jolt of improv to make them great, the third stream approach brings them right into the present moment. It makes them feel like they\u2019re brand new.\n\nI\u2019ve used classical & jazz elements in many of my songs, probably none more so than \u201cDream for Real\u201d, based on Pachelbel\u2019s Canon in D. More recently, my band REC\u2019s song \u201cPolymath\u201d uses a harpsichord-like keyboard sound to weave in a couple of classical inspired passages. And then there are the pair of songs I did for the film Lock-Load-Love, which combine well-known classical pieces, jazz rhythms, and space sounds. They were heavily influenced by Loussier, with a little bit of Esquivel thrown in:\n\nREC \u2013 \u201cPolymath\u201d (from the album Syzygy for the Weird)\n\n\u201cClassical Space-Jazz 1\u201d (from the soundtrack to the film Lock-Load-Love)\n\n\u201cClassical Space-Jazz 2\u201d (from the soundtrack to the film Lock-Load-Love)\n\n\n--- \n\nThis episode is sponsored by \n\xb7 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app\n\nSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/musicisnotagenre/support\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices