Several years ago, Carl Banner of Washington Musica Viva commissioned Charley Gerard to convert Mozart’s violin sonata #25 into a jazz piece. Mr. Banner was intrigued by the bass note passage on the piano and thought, wouldn’t this work great as a “walking” bass part with a drummer playing along? At first Mr. Gerard was hesitant to reinterpret Mozart, especially since jazzin’ up the classics was at one time roundly condemned by the musical establishment. But after examining the work, Mr. Gerard saw the creative possibilities. Mr. Gerard retitled the work Bukowski Liked Mozart after writer/poet Charles Bukowski, America’s bard of the down-and-out. This is Mozart that would fit into a barroom setting. The work has gone through a change since it was last performed locally with violinist Kathy Judd, Executive and Artistic Director at Washington Conservatory of Music. There were new parts for bass and drums and the piano part was also altered, but the violin part unchanged. In the present work, the violin part will now be assigned to a saxophone, and there are several additional spots for jazz improvisation. In a way, this is not too different from the way Mozart’s works were performed in the 18th century when musicians inserted their own improvised lead-ins at key harmonic points, ad-libbed cadenzas and improvised between movements. Since the work ends with a series of variations, it was not much of a leap to add a few more variations in a style that jazz musicians would be accustomed to. Bukowski Liked Mozart will be performed at Twins Jazz on Dec. 5, 2013. The performers are: Mr. Banner, piano, Charley Gerard, saxophone, drummer Lennie Robinson, bassist James King and Dutch guitarist Syberen Van Munster. This group has performed at the Kennedy Center and the Czech Republic Embassy.Twins Jazz is at 1344 U St NW, Washington, DC 20009 www.twinsjazz.com