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"That's my tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach", said my friend Steven, and it was soon quite clear what he meant. This was a school friend of mine who had a passion for jazz and was also very good with the paintbrush and easel.

The painting he was showing me was an abstract piece, a mass of whirls of colour, but each whirl was painted in a framework bounded by straight lines. Movement and vivacity were strictly controlled and related to each other, just as in a piece of music by Bach, where the time structures and rhythms control the beast that is trying to escape. I mentioned above that Steven was a jazz enthusiast, and is noticeable how Bach's legacy has affected the world of jazz every bit as much as it has influenced what we laughingly refer to as "serious" music.

COUNTERPOINT

Bach was the ultimate master of harmony and counterpoint, especially the latter. Counterpoint is about how two or more themes, or melodies, can have a separate existence but sound even better when played at the same time. That is what the best jazz musicians do brilliantly; one player starts off a tune and another improvises a countering tune that sometimes runs with the first one, sometimes against it, but always achieving a balance that enhances the whole performance. It's a good metaphor for life; do your own thing, but listen to what the other guy is up to. Together you will produce something that is far better than either of you could manage alone.

FUGUE

Bach's particular genius was a form of counterpoint called Fugue, which is at heart a very old musical form in which the same theme is repeated by different musicians, or singers, but at different times. A "round" is a sort of fugue, whereby a simple four-line song, such as "London Bridge is Falling Down" is started by one group and a second group starts just as the first group is starting the second line, then a third group joins in, and so on.

Fugue reached its apotheosis with Bach, which is not surprising given that Bach was a genius at the organ, which, with its multiple keyboard manuals, plus foot pedals, is the ideal instrument for fugue, especially as each manual can be given its own characteristics through combinations of stops that affect the tone.

Indeed, one of Bach's greatest works, although little heard in its entirety, unfinished though it was, is "The Art of Fugue", in which a single tune is taken and re-presented in hundreds of different ways. Again, the legacy of this is found in jazz, and also in the "theme and variations"

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