There is usually a build-up of tension after a concert pianist walks on stage, takes their seat, settles, and then raises their hands above the piano, ready to begin.

When Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone, known as both a jazz and classical pianist, took to the stage at Hamer Hall on Saturday night, he first walked to the edge of the stage, peered at the audience, and playfully asked, “Ready?”

It was an indication that this was to be no conventional rendition of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Makoto Ozone and Orchestra Victoria: Rhapsody in Blue at 100. Photo © Will Hamilton-Coates

Ozone was performing the work in a concert titled Rhapsody in Blue at 100: A Celebration of Orchestral Jazz with Orchestra Victoria, as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. The three-part concert also included compositions by the late American jazz pianist Chick Corea and Brazil’s Antonio Carlos Jobim, with local group Panorama Brasil also on the bill.

It is a tough call to make a performance of Rhapsody in Blue stand out, as it is one of the most performed and recorded works in the jazz orchestral repertoire. Ozone, however, gave...