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"The difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.” -Steve Lacy

Friday, 09 January 2009

Bill Charlap Trio November 7th - 12th at the Village Vanguard

Written by Ronaldo Oregano

Tuesday, 31 October 2006

"I try not to think about the piano per se, I'm not interested in bravura displays. Melody is the most sublime of all the utterances. Harmony is an emotional response. Rhythm is physical. Melody is an intuitive response that carries both the emotional and the physical." -Bill Charlap

This month, November 7th - 12th, the Bill Charlap Trio will grace the stage of the Village Vanguard with performances of the music of George Gershwin. Last year the Bill Charlap Trio released The American Soul: Bill Charlap Plays Gershwin.

Gershwin, one of the most significant American composers in history was influenced very much by French composers of the early twentieth century. Upon meeting composer Maurice Ravel, Gershwin asked him of the possibility of becoming a student of composition under the master. Ravel is said to have replied, "Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?" Ravel was already quite impressed with the ability of Gershwin, commenting, "Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing."

Critics have described Charlap's style variously as hard swinging, romantic or rigorous, but his musical roots can be found in a childhood home filled with songs and songwriters. His father, Moose Charlap, was a Broadway composer, known especially for his work on Peter Pan. His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a singer who, forty years ago, had a hit with the Kander and Ebb ballad, "My Coloring Book." House guests often included legendary figures from the great American songbook.

After attending the New York High School of Performing Arts and studying with jazz pianist Jack Reilly, classical pianist Eleanor Hancock, and jazz great (and distant cousin) Dick Hyman, he went on to college-but only temporarily.

"My classical foundation was very important, of course," he now says. "But the conservatory atmosphere was getting in the way of my jazz studies. Pianist Bill Mays and I had struck up a friendship and one day he said, 'Why don't you come up to my place? I've got a Fender Rhodes set up and we can play duo pianos.' After we played he said, 'Listen, I'm going to be leaving Gerry Mulligan's band, I think you're ready to replace me.' I didn't think I was, but I went to Gerry's place and auditioned, and we hit it off very well. Mulligan's famous line was, 'I shot for 42nd Street and ended up on 52nd.' And there is something about that I relate to." Both artists had arrived in Jazz Alley via Broadway song.

Charlap was on his way. He has been influenced, he claims, by every musician he has ever worked with, including the members of his current trio, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (no relation). The list includes such stellar jazz artists as Benny Carter, Clark Terry, Jim Hall, Frank Wess, Grady Tate, Phil Woods and Tony Bennett. But he has also been influenced by his mother's singing ("Her phrasing influences the way I play melody. In many ways I approach the song from a singer's perspective, music and lyrics are of equal importance").

Charlap's influences reflect the seriousness with which he has studied the entire jazz lineage. "I admire the elegance of Tommy Flanagan, the harmonic language and bebop phrasing of Hank Jones, the linear aspects of Lenny Tristano. Then there are Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Jimmy Rowles, Errol Garner, Thelonious Monk, Ellis Larkins, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, Roger Kellaway, Bobby Timmons, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland. People usually think of Bill Evans as a harmonist and romantic, but I'm influenced by Bill the bebop player, the rhythm section player he was when he worked for Miles. But I'm also influenced by non-pianists, like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Coltrane, Miles, Wayne Shorter and Chet Baker."