This project investigates how Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 18th-century harpsichord music can generate new forms of jazz improvisation and electroacoustic performance today. Combining saxophone, voice, and live electronics, and collaborating i various duo settings with piano, harpsichord, saxophone and guitar, Nicolas Kummert develops performances that approach Rameau’s pieces as flexible materials able to shift, evolve, and inspire contemporary musical directions.
The project treats historical repertoire not as a fixed object to reproduce, but as material for experimentation and transformation. Through improvisation, embodied exploration and electronic modulation, the research develops new ways of interacting with Rameau’s music across Jazz, Early Music, and hybrid performance contexts.
Improvisation functions both as creative practice and research method, revealing overlooked dimensions of Rameau’s music while exploring more flexible, audio-tactile approaches to repertoire beyond conventional lead-sheet practices in jazz. The research will result in concerts, duo performances, a transdisciplinary production, an album recording, lecture-performances, and written reflections.
