It’s a tale as old as time: the son of a famed keyboard legend reinterprets the music of one of metal’s biggest names as jazz standards.
This time around, it’s Adam Wakeman at the helm, with his Jazz Sabbath project having reimagined some of Black Sabbath’s most iconic tunes over the last few years.
For Wakeman – whose father Rick Wakeman was a prog-rock icon and a member of Yes – it all started when Black Sabbath wrapped up their final tour in 2017. Having played keyboards with both Black Sabbath and frontman Ozzy Osbourne since 2004, he found himself in a hotel bar in Berlin when guitarist Tony Iommi’s security guard asked him to play Black Sabbath’s material on piano.
Jazz Sabbath at Brunswick Ballroom
- 6:30pm, Sat 27 July
- Brunswick Ballroom
- Tickets here
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“I played an improvised jazz version of a song for a laugh, then carried on drinking,” Wakeman remembers. “When I went back to my room, I developed the thoughts of having a fictional, disgruntled pianist called Milton Keanes from the 1960s and Jazz Sabbath was born.”
What took shape was a plan to release jazz recordings of Black Sabbath under the Jazz Sabbath name. But that wasn’t enough. Wakeman concocted a fictitious backstory in which his alter ego, Milton Keanes, had in fact created all the original material in the ‘60s.
Following a brief hospitalisation, he returned to the music world only to find Black Sabbath had released two albums containing metal versions of his songs. Add in arson, insurance fraud, and prison time, and it was in 2020 that Jazz Sabbath would fully emerge, calling the real group “nothing more than musical charlatans”. As Wakeman assures though, Osbourne, Iommi, and Geezer Butler are all on side with the project.
“They’re British so they get the British sense of humour and like the musical interpretations,” he says. “Let’s face it, it’s honouring the great music these guys wrote and I am so grateful to have spent pretty much 20 years with those guys touring around the world. I wouldn’t have pursued it if they thought it was disrespectful in any way.”
With the songs being largely composed around the vocal melodies and guitar riffs of the original Black Sabbath songs, the jazz reinterpretations are truly masterful, and can easily be appreciated as originals in their own right. In fact, Wakeman reminds us there’s no gimmickry associated with a project such as this – especially given the songs are in fact ‘originals’.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he says. “Milton Keanes wrote all these songs in 1968/69 – There’s no gimmick here. Even by being born in 1974 (six years later), that’s just a small technicality I’m trying to work around.”
With much of the material from Jazz Sabbath’s oeuvre being based around the classic Osbourne era of the band, Wakeman notes the fanbase has been surprisingly diverse.
“Overall the reactions from metal and jazz fans alike have been fantastic,” he says. “I did think that it would be 90% metal fans and 10% curious jazz fans at shows but it seems more the other way around.
“It’s a reminder that most people’s music tastes are pretty diverse, especially as they get older.”
But for those not yet convinced of the jazz approach, he urges newcomers to listen to the likes of New Orleans icon Dr. John, and Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander. “There’s two for starters that aren’t hardcore jazz,” he offers. “Sometimes, jazz may seem a bit inaccessible to some so I tend to avoid jazz that sounds like a pet shop on fire.”
When it comes to the band’s live show, Wakeman notes that the spectacle is one that is being received far better than he would have expected. After all, it’s not all just piano, bass, and drums translating pioneering metal classics – there’s plenty of levity thrown into the mix.
“I’ve been really pleased with how it’s been received, and what I’ve realised is that it works in every country where people know of Black Sabbath – which is pretty much every country in the world.
“I love the fact that people enjoy the music interpretations and also can get a good laugh at me dressed up as a 85-year-old man with a walking stick,” he adds. “Part of me is slowly becoming Milton Keanes and my plan is to continue to play shows until I don’t have to spend an hour dying my hair grey every night.”
This year, Jazz Sabbath will be making their way down to Australia for a run of shows in late July, including a gig at the Brunswick Ballroom on July 27th. But that doesn’t seem to be all that’s on the cards for the group. With two full-length records to their name, an additional single last year, and rising popularity, it won’t be long before there are new happenings in the camp.
“Let’s just say that pianist Milton Keanes may have something up his sleeve for later in the year,” Wakeman notes. “Watch this space…”
Tickets here.
