{"product_id":"eugen-cicero_rokoko-jazz-jazz-versions-of-work_2024_war","title":"Rokoko Jazz - Jazz Versions of Work","description":"'Rokoko Jazz' is the first record recorded by Eugen Cicero for MPS in 1965, which also marked his major breakthrough with over one million copies sold worldwide. With his frantic, swinging versions, Cicero proves that his nickname \"Mr. Golden Hands\" is truly deserved.Here is a reissue of 'Rokoko Jazz' on CD (Digipak) and 180g Vinyl. The original master tape was digitized for audio in the usual MPS quality and refreshed for CD and LP with subtle remastering. The foreword is written by Swiss jazz drummer Charly Antolini, who not only played drums on this album but also brought Eugen Cicero to the MPS label in the first place.Liner notes:\"Bach's Softly Sunrise\": All of Cicero is embodied in this recording and in this title. The \"swinging versions of Bach\" are fashionable today. But from Benny Goodman's \"Bach Goes to Town,\" recorded 25 years ago, to everything the Swingle Singers and Jacques Loussier are doing today, I don't know a single \"Swinging Bach\" that accelerates as fast... rhythmically dynamic as this one.Cicero does not swing his Bach because it is the fashion of the day. He swings it because his music lives from the tension between what the record industry calls \"classical\" and jazz. This is not only evident in \"Bach's Softly Sunrise,\" the brilliant combination of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata in D minor and Richard Rodgers' beautiful melody \"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.\" This melody has often inspired baroque and contrapuntal mischief, but Cicero not only gives it a dose of Bach; he also adds a strong pinch of Charlie Parker.From Couperin to Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, born the same year as Bach, to Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Mozart, our record takes you through one of the great centuries of Western music, traveling from the Baroque to the Rococo to the early Classical period.The focus is on the Rococo — the sensitive and galant style of the 18th century, reminiscent of Nymphenburg porcelain, amorous pastorals, and lavish court festivities. I have an old German Brockhaus encyclopedia from 1903. Look up the keyword \"Rococo\" and in that outdated language, you will find everything you need to know about Cicero's music. \"The hallmark of the Rococo is the dissolution into light, delicately sinuous lines... vegetal, the frame envelops the content, entwines it like a living organism... The rhythm elevates the Rococo to a style...\"Cicero treats the compositions of these great 18th-century composers with respect and admiration. It rarely happens that themes and melodies gain clarity and contour from someone who loves to play them \"faithful to the original.\" You can feel this particularly strongly in Cicero's version of the old aria \"Have Mercy, My God\" from the St. Matthew Passion and in Mozart's Fantasy in D minor. The latter is one of the most successful pieces on our record... Anyone who took piano lessons in their youth will have moments of nostalgia listening to what Cicero does with Solfeggio, a composition by Bach's son, Philipp Emanuel.However, his real name is not Cicero. As for his real name, Eugen Cicero gave up keeping it very early on. Who in our corner of the world can really pronounce that? \"Ciceu,\" he imagined: \"it sounds like Cicero.\" Well, it's Cicero.Eugen Ciceu-Cicero was born on June 27, 1940, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The four-year-old child learned his first Mozart sonatinas from his mother. His brother introduced him to jazz. Adrian Ciceu is one of the most famous jazz drummers and jazz critics in Romania.In 1950, at the age of 10, Cicero gave piano concerts on Radio Bucharest. Aurelia Cionca, the most famous pianist in Romania, noticed him and invited him to take lessons with her. He later studied at the National Conservatory of Bucharest.His phenomenal piano technique was quickly recognized. At the age of 16, he received the first prize of the Romanian national competition for young musical performers... and had to settle for a certificate because he was too young to receive the official prize.Then came the big turning point. At 18, he formed his first jazz quintet with his brother Adrian Ciceu. He gave concerts in Romania and Czechoslovakia, recorded, and played on radio and television. Then his brother, who came from jazz, went to the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, and Eugen, who came from concert music, had landed in jazz once and for all....He went to Austria and Switzerland via East Germany. There, the other musicians he had brought with him from Romania left him. Not to go home, of course, but to go to America.And Freddy Brocksieper, who had played jazz longer than any other German-speaking musician, that is, for over thirty years, brought him to Munich and introduced him to the West German public.On the record, Cicero plays with bassist Peter Witte and Swiss drummer Charly Antolini. Both musicians play with the Erwin Lehn Orchestra in Stuttgart. In their combination of jazz-worthy freedom and professional studio experience, they form the ideal rhythm section for Cicero.Asked about a hobby, Cicero says: \"I have no hobby besides the piano.\" Counter-question: \"But isn't playing the piano your profession?\" Answer: \"Oh yes, I had completely forgotten...\"","brand":"Eugen Cicero","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57531276689752,"sku":null,"price":20240517.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en\/products\/eugen-cicero_rokoko-jazz-jazz-versions-of-work_2024_war","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}