Music / “The Bach Project”, The Michelle Nicolle Quartet at The Street Theatre, 21 July. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

ONE of the great composers, JS Bach’s music and its often abstract nature makes it a good choice for re-imagination and improvisation.

Jazz ensemble, the Michelle Nicolle Quartet, in their concert at the Street Theatre, showed a sold-out audience how this could be achieved with spirit and superb musicianship.

For 24 years, the Michelle Nicolle Quartet has been interpreting and re-imagining music as a 21^st century improvising chamber group.  Vocalist, Michelle Nicolle, was joined on stage by guitarist Hugh Stuckey, bassist Tom Lee and drummer Ronny Ferella.

The Bach Project was initiated by the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium, inviting the MNQ to perform for the 2014 Bach Festival. The quartet’s arrangements showcase the mastery of JS Bach’s compositions and add a new flavour to the improvisational elements found in these great works.

The quartet performed 10 works, most of them from The Bach Project.  There were also two other songs – “Naturally What” and “One Beer”.

They began with “Bist du bei mir”, haunting and sensuous and a perfect mood-setting piece for the evening. Nicolle’s voice just draws you in and the musicians accompanying her are with her all the way.  The result is spell-binding and continued throughout the evening.

They continued with other Bach works in their unique musical style including “Minuet in G”, “Musette in D Major” and “March in D (Ornette)” – a re-imagining of this work as if it were played by Ornette Coleman.

There were also superb arrangements of “Fugue in Gm” combined with “Round Midnight” by Thelonius Monk and “Sarabande (from Partita No. 1) fused with “Lonely Woman” by Horace Silver.  These were the highlights of the evening.

The final work performed, “Komm, süsser Tod” (Come Sweet Death), their interpretation was full of the yearning for rest in death and heaven. In their hands, it was strangely uplifting and a perfect end to this sublime concert.