A portrait by Prof. Reinhard Flender, Hamburg

(click here for German version)

For over a hundred years, musicians in America and Europe have sought to combine Jazz and european Art-Music. In spite of many efforts, the two musical styles have seldom been brought to a successful synthesis. The reason lies in the fact that jazz, in all of its different stilistic directions, is a music which is traditionally passed on through word of mouth and playing. That which is most significant to jazz can only be partially captured in musical notation. Classical music on the other hand, was practically born with the invention of notation.

The technique of notation has been perfected to the extent that every detail of a composition can be written down. If one wants to combine these two forms of music, he must have a high level of competentence in the musical logic which notation makes possible, as well as in the art of jazz improvisation. Allan Botschinsky is one of these rare double talents. As the son of a classical orchestra musician, he is just as much at home with notated classical music as with the lively sounds of improvised music. In his suite for Orchestra, SENTIMENTS, from 1975 he proved his mastery in both genres and joined the ranks of the so called "Third Stream" composers like Gunter Schuller and Leonard Bernstein.

Beside works for Orchestra, Concertos and Chambermusik Botschinsky has also composed a series of compositions for solo instruments - COLOURS.In most of his works it is the melodic line which is the starting point for the composition. In addition, he uses stilistic elements from modern classical music. UNEXPECTED MOVE for chamber ensemble starts with a repeated phrase which quickly moves into an attractive melodic line played by the cello, which is so typical for Botschinky's compostitional style. HIGHLAND FANTASIES for trumpet and organ also favours the melodic line. After a short introduction, the trumpet develops over a sustained organ pedal point an extended solo which is a perfect synthesis of notated composition and improvisation. Musical influences from many different sources are woven together so mastefully in Botschinsky's compositions, that a unusual listenig experience emerges combining variation, restfulness and surprise.