How have you organized Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'?

I wanted to take the Goldberg theme, which is really four, eight-bar phrases, (very much like a George Gershwin song), and just as Bach used many different forms - everything from Scarlatti-like piano writing, right next to very diatonic pieces, and pieces in dance styles, folk songs, drinking songs - I wanted to structure a piece where we get a chance to play the Bach in different ways, but also add my own variations. So if Bach used dance forms like the gigue, I'm using dance forms like the mambo, tango or funk. We use variations that deal with aspects of jazz history in different styles, as well as different aspects of Bach's history. All the pieces are structured on that 32-bar theme and so in that sense the contrast works in the same way that a lot of classical theme and variations does.

Have you encountered puzzled reactions from audiences expecting more traditional interpretations of the music?

That would be an understatement in some cases. It's interesting to see the different reactions. We've played it at Bach festivals especially in Europe, where some people really like it and other people really objected to it. I remember one day we were playing it in Dresden at this big Bach festival and the choir all took their bottles of wine out and started to sing the 30th variation in a really drunken way. The mayor of the city and everybody, you could tell they were confused and dismayed. Sometimes at jazz festivals it's the same dynamic.

You have performed the work of other European classical composers such as Schumann, Wagner and Mozart. What has been your motivation in doing these projects?

I consider myself a jazz musician who is looking for different texts, standards, forms, either that I'm writing or that are based on other types of music besides what people call "jazz standards". It's just a way to apply the principles of improvisation to different situations.

There is a long history of trying to meld European classical music and jazz, much of which has turned out ponderous or pretentious. What are the pitfalls of joining the two and how do you avoid those pitfalls?

It has to be more than putting a swing beat behind it. I try to find a certain meaning within the composer's own work that suggests something to me, something I have a personal relationship playing. For instance, if I'm hearing Mahler and realizing that the Philadelphia Orchestra will never play the third movement of the First Symphony, (sort of this klezmer march), in the same way I can imagine playing it with people that I know. It's not going against that music or mocking that music or having the nerve to even tamper with that music. It is loving that music. In a way, it doesn't just belong to people that define themselves as the classical music tradition.

You always seem to be working on a number of interesting and disparate projects at any given time. What are you up to these days?

I just did three new cds for Winter & Winter. One is a solo piano cd called "Solitaire". One is a cd playing with musicians I know in Rio, called "Rio", and the third is more a funk, drum 'n bass type of record where I'm playing mostly electric piano with this trio that I've been playing with called Bedrock. I also wrote another piece in this classical vibe, this one based on the Diabelli Variations of Beethoven.