Classical, Jazz & Indigenous Music Interwoven

World Pianist Jean Kleeb

(25.07.2023)

Jean Kleeb is a composer and pianist, born and raised in Brazil, who has lived in Germany since he was 28. His passion is to weave together the various styles of the world, from classical music to jazz to indigenous music, just as people and nature are interconnected. In the interview, he discusses, among other things, what world music should be, how much jazz is in Josquin and Wagner, and the role of his current project, the environmental cantata "Protecting Earth."

Related Articles:

• From Sound to Emotion – How Music Influences Our Feelings
• Living and Working as a Classical Composer Today – An Interview with Zdeněk Král
• The Calling of a Composer – An Interview with Sophie Lacaze

Jean Kleeb |

Jean Kleeb, born in Santo André, Brazil, is a versatile musician, composer, cantor, and world pianist. His musical education encompasses various styles, including jazz, classical, Brazilian music, and world music. With over 100 compositions published by Bärenreiter, Bosse, or Helbling Verlag, he works as a freelance musician and leads several ensembles, including the choir "Joy of Life" of the Kurhessian Cantorei Marburg, the choir "Vozes do Brasil," and the chamber choir Klangfarben Gießen.

All Scores by Jean Kleeb

Dear Mr. Kleeb, you describe yourself as a world pianist. How would you define that?

Someone who has truly absorbed various cultures and translates them onto the piano, not purely a classical or jazz pianist but someone who can interpret many styles and seeks connections between them.

Do you prefer a particular music style?

My favorite style is the communication between styles, between Western, African, and Latin American music. In elements that fit together and others that are contrasting – in this range I move and find ways to express what lies between.

Many people might say: I know classical and I know Latin, but not yet this connection between them. I want to create an artistic connection and think: Where is the essence, what can I use instrumentally without it being added or repeated? I create anew but have two or three musical worlds, such as Classical Music, Jazz, and Brazilian Music.

What or who inspired you to compose?

In my youth, I was in a music school in São Paulo, where I learned all styles at the age of 12. Harmony, counterpoint, rhythms from Brazil. The best jazz musicians in Brazil were there once a week and taught us.

I started writing and developing ideas there. Of course, I also learned orchestration during my studies in São Paulo, but I taught myself a lot autodidactically.

The access to music as free music, where you just sit somewhere and play, is particularly important to me. It took a long time until I had my first composition that I was satisfied with and until I found my style. That was only when I was here in Germany, over 30 years old, probably also having the necessary distance from my home and education.

What is your biggest inspiration now?

The fascination with the counterpoint of different music styles when they can correspond and show contrasts. Last year I wrote a symphony and am currently particularly fascinated by orchestral sounds.

Which piece are you most proud of?

There is a "Magnificat" that encompasses many cultures coming together, which has not been published yet. Additionally, my Missa Brasileira has received considerable acclaim in many countries because apparently something has been achieved that was long overdue but never realized: the connection of liturgical text with Brazilian styles, at an artistic level where both European/Iberian and Brazilian music shine. It feels like composing something that hasn't existed before.

Do most Europeans associate Latin American music with joy and dance – is that correct?

For me, it's different. The music also has a very profound side, with depths in its sounds that you would rather find in Renaissance music here. Brazilian music was influenced by Spaniards and Portuguese, and they used church modes brought by the Jesuits to Latin America.

Originally, Brazilian indigenous music did not live in tonal contexts, which has only been approached in the last 500 years.

How much jazz is there in classical music?

I see it like this: Jazz music is a kind of liberation from normal harmonic tonal constraints, without losing tonal coherence. It's an expanded tonality that existed in the Renaissance as well. I think our ears in the 20th century focused on a certain classical way of playing and listening. But when I perform a mass by Josquin Desprez, I hear jazz chords, sometimes even in Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Certain sounds were clearer and more directly used through jazz than before.

When I made the arrangement of "Parsifal" recently, I was completely enthusiastic because I realized that Wagner thinks in the same harmony. It's really like the highest form of jazz in which he writes, although of course not in the familiar "jazz sound" because the musical language differs. But in essence, he's not far from jazz.

We use YouTube to embed video content. This Google service has its own cookies and may collect data about your activity. You can find more information in the data protection declaration of the provider. We need your consent to display YouTube videos:

Show YouTube content

How do you choose the topics you compose / write about?

I always write with the feeling that the music is present in the collective consciousness of people, but I still want to realize it myself.

Initially, I don't write a single note, but it starts more with a feeling until I have the right impulses. Only after a long process do I start writing. A bit like how Wagner did it (laughs). You hear in Parsifal every second that some theme is sounding. Everything is interwoven in some form with the leitmotifs.

Sometimes I already have musical ideas in the form of chords, but usually, there's an intense engagement with the content and emotions first, and I also read a lot.

You're working on a cantata for the Earth, how did that come about?

I was amazed at how few works are composed about it. Most musicians seem to be somewhat asleep on this topic. Especially about the connection of humans to the forest and the preservation of the forest, one should write – so I started with that!

However, it's so difficult to compose on this topic without becoming political or falling into a too generalized groove. Just writing that the forest is burning and we must do something about it doesn't go far enough for me. So, I spent half a year reading many books and, for example, poems of the indigenous population in Brazil that address current events. Now I finally feel mature for the topic and know what I'm writing about. This is the only way I can do it, with the necessary depth, instead of just mouthing superficial phrases.

If you could collaborate with someone, who would you choose?

I would talk to Johann Sebastian Bach, because for me, he is a composer who has an incredible depth from within and at the same time, has the craftsmanship to immediately convey in notes what he thinks.

I'm currently writing "Bach goes World" for Bärenreiter, where I weave influences from all over the world out of Bach's music. I see him as a link between old and new music. He still has all the knowledge of old music and at the same time, the absolute freedom to write something new.

What music do you listen to when you're alone?

I rarely listen to music privately. I'm always playing myself and conducting choirs. I enjoy listening to modern choral music, but also very old music from Guillaume de Machaut and Heinrich Isaac.

Thank you very much, Mr. Kleeb, for the interesting conversation!