When Jazz Meets The Classics

The Aspen Music Festival is celebrating the connection between classical music and jazz this summer, which is admirable, of course, but how successful have the periodic marriages between the two styles really been over the decades? “Composers… tried to imitate the syncopa­tion and the chord structures [of jazz.] They used saxophones and drum kits. The novelty tickled some classical music listeners, but to ears familiar with real jazz a lot of it rang false.”