September 2012 - The New York City Jazz Record

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Alive at the Vanguard Fred Hersch Trio (Palmetto) 20 September 2012 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD by Matthew Kassel Da Vinci Fred Hersch/Nico Gori (Bee Jazz) The title of pianist Fred Hersch’s new album, Alive at the Village Vanguard, is a clever updating of two previous records he’s put out with similar names. There’s Live at the Village Vanguard from 2003 and Alone at the Vanguard, recorded in 2010. But the name goes deeper than that. Hersch, who has AIDS, fell into a pneumonia-induced coma for two months in 2008 and almost died. So the title comes with that extra baggage, which is not to say that you should appreciate the record more for that reason. Appreciate it because it is a superb statement from one of the most respected pianists in jazz. Recorded with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson during a week-long run at the Vanguard back in February, the two-disc set is a balanced assemblage of Hersch originals, ballads and medium-swing standards. Perhaps most lovely are the ballads, particularly renditions of “I Fall In Love Too Easily”, lush and melancholy, and “The Song Is You”, usually played at a fast tempo but here sounding wonderful slowed down. Hersch solos rapturously throughout, drawing you in with his beautiful sound. The music feels soft and powerful at the same time and that’s due in large part to Hébert and McPherson’s sensitive accompaniment. Equally lovely, though different, is Da Vinci, an album Hersch recorded in a duo with the Italian clarinetist Nico Gori. Hersch is an inveterate solo pianist and this record gives him the chance, unaccompanied by drums and bass, to exhibit his strong rhythmic feel further. He and Gori have a tight connection; the pianist weaves intricate arabesques with his left hand around Gori’s concise phrases, as in “Lee’s Dream”, which Hersch wrote in dedication to the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. It’s a format you’d like to hear Hersch in more often. For more information, visit palmetto-records.com and beejazz.com. The trio is at Village Vanguard Sep. 11th-16th. See Calendar. Our Thing (featuring Duduka Da Fonseca) Roni Ben-Hur/Santi Debriano (Motéma Music) by Sharon Mizrahi Roni Ben-Hur and Santi Debriano join with Duduka Da Fonseca to craft Our Thing, an album that transforms subtlety into an artform. The liner notes stress the fierce and fiery cross-cultural unity among the three artists - Ben-Hur hails from Israel, Debriano from Panama and Da Fonseca Brazil - but their sound emerges far more ethereal than anticipated. Thelonious Monk provides the trio’s opening inspiration in “Green Chimneys”. Ben-Hur is the narrator of the lightly tropical tale, counterpointing Debriano and Da Fonseca’s earthy vibe with a cool electric flair. He evokes the sprightliness of jazz’ contemporary guitar generation, dripping away each intricate refrain like melodic water. Debriano’s bass proves just as acrobatic, through shrouded in far muskier overtones. Da Fonseca’s complex musical facets blossom in his own “Isabella”, a bittersweet piece threaded with hopeful layers. The percussionist demonstrates the full range of his cymbals, opening with assertive cascades before fading to metallic droplets - only to resurge in a wave of sparkling leaps. Ben-Hur harmonizes with his distinctive starry-eyed flair, setting forth a waterfall of pristine and pensive elaborations. “Earl’s Key” features Ben-Hur’s clever technique as he oscillates from a low-key breeze to a marathon of intricate riffs. Da Fonseca’s expressive cymbals slow down and fast-forward to keep the pace while Debriano’s subliminal bass fuels the action from afar. His solo, however, basks in the foreground, emerging bold and deeply exhilarating. The trio’s cross-cultural unity vibrantly courses through the spectral opposites “Afroscopic” and “Ela E Carioca”. Debriano’s former composition is a kaleidoscope of AfroLatin flavors, strung together by Da Fonseca’s innovative hand drums and shakers. The bass-guitar dynamic emerges particularly riveting, featuring zesty chords alongside thick plucks. The latter tune, composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, offers dynamism in a breezier context. Ben-Hur, Debriano and Da Fonseca sway across the air with the grace of palm trees, exuding a laidback introspection. For more information, visit motema.com. This group is at Jazz Standard Sep. 11th. See Calendar.
Songs of Earth Jessica Williams (Origin) Wherever You Are (Midnight Moods for Solo Piano) Denny Zeitlin (Sunnyside) The Noguchi Sessions Arturo O’Farrill (Zoho) Contemplation Gabriel Zufferey (Bee Jazz) by Donald Elfman The four artists who make up this quartet of splendid new solo piano recordings are careful and thoughtful in their choice of both notes and spaces. The performances collected here are clearly about expression. In concert at Seattle’s The Triple Door, on Songs of Earth Jessica Williams’ concept and technique are grand and symphonic but fall, as she rightly says, into no category or genre. The individual pieces suggest a full spectrum of moods and colors as does, says Williams, the Earth. “Joe and Jane” is a kind of hymn in tribute to the men and women in the military, the mood sorrowful but also rhapsodic, working as a hopeful prayer for peace. The one tune not composed by Williams is John Coltrane’s “To Be”, where she avoids any particular stylistic approach but seeks what Coltrane means to her in terms of freedom and invention. Williams’ latest influence, she notes, is Spanish guitarist Carlos Montoya, disliked by critics for straying from traditional form; his daring and bravery in doing so inspires Williams on her dedicatory tune “Montoya”. The pianist’s understanding is revealed in her ability to suggest the mercurial passions of the guitar and the Spanish forms he both played with and transformed. Denny Zeitlin has come a long way since he was thought of as “the jazz psychiatrist”. He is a master interpreter of song and his approach has developed into one that is harmonically rich, intellectually reflective and deeply lyrical. On Wherever You Are, the notion of lyrical goes beyond its meaning of simply songlike and melodic to one that celebrates the words intoned by the human voice. These are the words of the writers of the Great American Songbook, the contemplative notions of love and longing that inform the human experience. Zeitlin takes familiar and not- so-familiar ballads and invests them with his own very particular colors and shadings. He comes to us with a deeply reharmonized “Body and Soul”, a dark and mysterious reading, beautifully embellished to let the listener hear it anew. Be prepared for a surprise with Bobby Troup’s “The Meaning of the Blues” from the Miles Davis album Miles Ahead. Zeitlin, informed by a new reading of the lyrics, digs deep into the “tragedy of loss”, as he calls it, and fashions an achingly intimate rubato gem that unfolds with the slow and exquisite pace of a work of nature. The theme only makes itself evident as the piece winds to a close. Jobim also is reworked as the pianist fuses “Quiet Nights” and “How Insensitive” into one sensual poem of bittersweet melancholy. It’s the pianist’s smart and ever-thoughtful approach that finds new levels of expression in these most familiar bossa nova chestnuts. Zeitlin also revisits some of his originals - “Time Remembers One Time Once” and “Wherever You Are” - and continues to reveal insights about love and connection. On The Noguchi Sessions, Arturo O’Farrill pays tribute to the great Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi. The pianist set up his instrument in a gallery of the Noguchi Museum (in Long Island City) and played a celebration to the “fragility” and “transience” of our lives and even of our art in 12 affecting and compelling performances ranging from originals by the composer and works from the Spanish and Latin- American canon to an exploration of Americana and Irish roots and rarely performed tunes from the jazz repertoire. In Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna”, the pianist takes the minstrel song, chock full of corny and even horrid stereotypes, and finds a way to reflect an American past honestly. One of the great and neglected composers from this hemisphere is Cuban-born Ernesto Lecuona. His “Siboney” is a tribute to an indigenous Cuban people and O’Farrill feels it his duty to celebrate that “before we got here, there were others”. The rhythms of Cuba are present but they take an organic role in the commanding power of the piano. O’Farrill’s approach is more meditative but no less artful on “Oh Danny Boy”, another look back at the past. O’Farrill is a gifted composer as well, as is manifest in his adventures with “simple chords and major triads” coming from “Once I Had a Secret Love”and becoming O’Farrill’s “Once I Had a Secret Meditation”. It’s a brief and lovely tune, a touching set of intriguing improvisations on the old tune. Swiss-born Gabriel Zufferey has made Contemplation, his first solo piano album, a grand, ambitious excursion – 18 tunes, many of them associated with some of the greatest names in jazz and jazz piano. Zufferey makes these performances his own thanks, in part, to brevity - none of these performances is much longer than five minutes. The five-four pulse of Paul Desmond’s “Take Five” is the starting and staying point of this improvisation, which never really states the melody except for the bridge. Zufferey also offers a number of very brief interludes, demonstrating his own adventurous work in miniature composition for the keyboard. The young artist discovers a new way to enter the world of Thelonious Monk, finding “Trinkle Tinkle” at the center of a maelstrom of sound, thus framing the melody in a way not quite seen before. The same might be said of “Giant Steps”, presented as a moody ballad in which the familiar and complex line is only revealed after some atmospheric soul-searching. Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” finds the old standard constructed and deconstructed as if to make us think we’ve not heard it before but hearkening to something we’re sure we know. This pattern is indicative of the way Zufferey gets to the heart of great tunes. For more information, visit originarts.com, sunnysiderecords.com, zohomusic.com and beejazz.com. O’Farrill is at Saint Peter’s Sep. 12th and Birdland Sep. 30th and Sundays. See Calendar and Regular Engagements. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | September 2012 21
Page 1: September 2012 | No. 125 B O B B Y
Page 4 and 5: NEW YORK @ NIGHT SMOKE ® JAZZ&SUPP
Page 6 and 7: Photo by Geoffrey Creighton INTERVI
Page 8 and 9: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 | 7:30PM |$3
Page 10 and 11: ENCORE Rahn Burton by Matthew Mille
Page 12 and 13: Inner Circle by Alex Henderson Greg
Page 14 and 15: IN MEMORIAM Lol Coxhill - a great i
Page 16 and 17: Plays Toninho Horta Duduka Da Fonse
Page 18 and 19: GLOBE UNITY: BRAZIL Piano Masters S
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Page 24 and 25: Fortune Songs Jasmine Lovell-Smith
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Page 28: Live at Smalls Jesse Davis (smallsL
Page 31 and 32: Yesterday and Today Toots Thieleman
Page 33 and 34: Loverly Lenore Raphael/Howard Alden
Page 35 and 36: New York City’s most famous jazz
Page 37 and 38: Conduit Greg Diamond (Dot Time) by
Page 39 and 40: Golden Child Jared Gold (Posi-Tone)
Page 41 and 42: (INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6) a
Page 43 and 44: Wednesday, September 5 êPeter Brö
Page 45 and 46: Friday, September 14 êDan Tepfer
Page 47 and 48: Sunday, September 23 êFONT: Natsuk
Page 49 and 50: CLUB DIRECTORY • 449 Lounge 449 L
Page 51: BUCKY ADAMS - As an 11-year-old tru

September 2012 - The New York City Jazz Record

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