While I enjoyed an excellent classical music education in London at the Royal College of Music I ventured later intopop, rock and other musical styles without abandoning my classical roots, and attempted to share the fruits of this Catholic musical perspective with audiences. They were perhaps not ready for pioneering efforts in bridging the gap between jazz and classical, then, and seemed to me sometimes to advocate a kind of ‘apartheid in music'(Reddy 2005a).

This led him to createhis distinctive compositional style referred to as clazz.The name originated froman amalgamation of the words ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’. In reality, clazzcomprisesseveral musical genresincludingjazz, pop, Indian, world music, rock, Javanese gamelan music, South African mbaqanga,isicathamiya, and Western art music. Reddy’s political and philosophical beliefs are evident in clazz. By fusing different musical styles, he exhibitedhis humanitarianism, deeming all should be treated equally(Reddy 2007:11; Lucia 2010b:53; Van der Merwe 2016:71).

rather than being born into a culture and almost becoming a victim of it one could choose ones culture or cultures and integrate one’s perception of them into one’s own creativity. both in time and in space one could travel around our world absorbing the best that different cultures and epochs have to offer us and making this, if appropriate, our own voice. i came to see music as one language with countless different dialects when viewed both internationally and inter-temporally any of which could be incorporated into one’s own self-expression if the subject matter of what one wished to express so necessitated it. (‘preface’ to ‘six baroque suites’, 2006)

Reddy, as he writes in thecomposer’s notes precedingthe piece, this piece is a matureexample of his clazz style.

Clazz

Clazz

clazz