Classical Changes
- The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov)
- Valerie Takes a Ride (after Wagner)
- Elise's Blues (after Beethoven)
- Arrival Revival (after Handel)
- One Night in Seville (after Bizet)
- Jiffy Dance (after Bizet)
- Saturday in the Park with Elgar (after Elgar)
- Country Breaks (after Beethoven)
- Jim's Nobody (after Satie)
- Hungarian High-Five (after Brahms)
- 3am Lullaby (after Brahms)
- There's a Storm Brewing (after Vivaldi)
A Sea Shanty Shake-Up
- What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor
- Lowlands
- Sailor's Hornpipe
Lay My Burden Down (based on African-American Spirituals)
- When I Lay My Burden Down
- Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
- Amazing Grace
- Steal Away
- Every Time I Feel the Spirit

Sometimes, and more so at this time of year, we all need a breath of fresh air, or to shake things up a bit to pull us out of the cold storage that is winter. And musically speaking, this new recording by the Art Deco Trio with Peter Sparks (clarinet), Kyle Horch (saxophone) and Iain Farrington (piano), may very well do the trick. Just like how Claude Bolling and/or Jacques Loussier reached a large audience in the past with their unique stylings of classical music transformed into jazz, the clever and sometimes tongue-in-cheek arrangements by Iain Farrington of these famous and highly popular classical pieces, make the music jump off the page.

The titles alone, like Valerie Takes a Ride, The Bite of the Flumblebee, Hungarian High-Five, hint at the comic relief injected into some of the music. But it's not all fun and games here, as these arrangements have all been masterfully crafted and at times inflict high technical demands on all three musicians. And on the flip side of the coin, pieces like Jim's Nobody and Elise's Blues elicit a high degree of expressive touches from the players.

Many attempts by others in the past to effectively fuse classical and jazz elements have proven detrimental to the music, and in my opinion proved to be blasphemous in respect to the composer's intent. Such is not the case here. Despite the main melodies sometimes being subjected to many harmonic permutations and jazzy rhythms, everything sounds fresh, well structured, and especially invigorating, just like removing our winter boots and slipping into well-worn running shoes.