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Classic in Jazz album cover

Album guide

Classic in Jazz

János Nagy & Frankie Látó

Released
2012
Label
Cool Tour
Forces
Piano, Violin
Personnel
János Nagy piano, Frankie Látó violin, with Ábel Nagy guitar on track 5

By the time he made Classic in Jazz, János Nagy had already been asked to help devise Hungary’s basic jazz-piano curriculum. In the album’s release year he published a two-volume jazz-piano coursebook, later contributing to the country’s teaching methodology for the subject.

With violinist Frankie Látó, Nagy gives Debussy, Liszt and Chopin room to move between close reading and improvisation, sometimes dropping a fixed jazz pulse altogether. Their longest performance lasts more than twenty-six minutes, allowing the duo to follow an idea without hurrying towards the next tune.

Hear both

The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.

The originalsDebussy, Liszt, Chopin, Paganini · classical source works

Track 3 names three separate pieces and has one recording of each, while track 7 has no classical source; every other track has one recording apiece.

Jazzed upJános Nagy & Frankie Látó · 2012
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Source works

The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.

  1. Clair De LuneDebussy: Suite bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune
  2. Reverie (feat. Frankie Lato)Debussy: Rêverie, L. 68
  3. Consolation Desz Dur / E Dur / The Maiden’s Wish (feat. Frankie Lato)Liszt: Consolations, S. 172 No. 3 in D-flat major; Liszt: Consolations, S. 172 No. 2 in E major; Chopin: ‘Życzenie’ (The Maiden’s Wish), Op. 74 No. 1
  4. The Little Negro (feat. Frankie Lato)Debussy: Le petit nègre, L. 114
  5. La Campanella (feat. Abel Nagy)Liszt: Grandes études de Paganini, S. 141 No. 3 in G-sharp minor, ‘La campanella’
  6. Paganini Caprice (feat. Frankie Lato)Liszt: Grandes études de Paganini, S. 141 No. 6 in A minor — theme and variations on Paganini’s Caprice No. 24
  7. Doctor in Love (feat. Frankie Lato)Original composition by János Nagy