PLAYING THE MUSIC OF J.S. BACH

I first heard Bach’s music at the age of 13 when my guitar teacher played me his ‘Bourree in E Minor’. This is a famous Bach tune that many contemporary musicians have been influenced by, including Paul McCartney, who was inspired to write his beautiful ‘Blackbird’ after hearing it. As a 13 year old, Bach ‘blew my mind’, and I was determined that and one day I would learn to play that piece!

Throughout the 20th and now 21st Centuries, many recordings have been made of Bach’s works, but all in a traditional manner. However, that’s not where I wanted to go, I didn’t want to bring out ‘yet another Bach recording’! Since playing and studying Bach’s works in depth, I discovered his music is surprisingly similar to our modern day jazz, rock, folk, blues, and even pop music. For example ‘A whiter shade of pale’ by Procol Harum, is based on the opening chord progression of Bach’s ‘Air on a G string’. Bands such as Sky, The Muse, The Beach Boys, even Lady Gaga, have all borrowed from Bach!

As a modern day guitarist, who grew up in the rock industry, and was also highly trained as a Renaissance and Baroque lutenist, I decided to combine all my skills and ‘put the blues into Bach’!

I began recording Bach on the electric guitar using traditional lute techniques, and to my amazement, it sounded like his music was written for the instrument. I hope you enjoy my interpretation of this extraordinary music. Cheers, Rafael