After blogging about jazz based on the excuse of the Smithsonian's Jazz Appreciation Month, I am returning this month to wine and viticulture, mixing these subjects with jazz.
Jazz and wine go together, up to a point. Wineries program jazz as long as it doesn't upset the gentile vibe of the audience: upscale, relaxed sophisticates. Quiet piano trios are typical. Would a winery ever book Muhal Richard Abrams and Anthony Braxton to play on the lawn against a backdrop of vines and sherbet sunset colors? If so, what wine would you pair with such outbound tangles and skronks?
In my experience, any wine I like will pair perfectly with any music I like. I remember listening to John Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard with my college roommate, a 3-liter bottle of Almaden Rhine wine between us. Now I would go for an unoaked chardonnay or dry riesling — or anything else on hand.
I know of one jazz recording that intersects with wine in a literal way: Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Live at the Jazz Standard: Days of Wine and Roses. The album was promoted in a package that included a bottle of 1999 Reichsrat von Buhl Pfalz Riesling halbtrocken, with grapes that Schneider helped select at the vineyard in Germany.
I will update this post with images of the Schneider's wine-jazz package. Right now, I'm installing a new version of iPhoto and will have to wait until that's done to post photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment