Jazz Police - Celebrating “Jazz Thearpy” with the Denny Zeitlin Trio at Dizzy’s, March 10

Celebrating “Jazz Thearpy” with the Denny Zeitlin Trio at Dizzy’s, March 10–11

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Sunday, 08 March 2009

“...extraordinary in range, electrifying in depth and intensity, hypnotic in its flow and sweep, perfection itself…” San Francisco Chronicle

Buster Williams, Denny Zeitlin, Matt Wilson

Dubbed by Leonard Feather as "the most versatile young pianist to come to prominence in the early 1960's,” Denny Zeitlin is known today as “the jazz world's most visible Renaissance man” (LA Times). In addition to his part-time career as a jazz performer, composer, and improviser, Zeitlin is a practicing psychiatrist in the San Francisco Bay area. And if one considers music therapeutic, then the price of therapy just went down in

Manhattan when Dr. Zeitlin celebrates the simultaneous release of new and reissued music at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, March 10-11. His long-standing trio features the sublime Buster Williams on bass and trapset monster Matt Wilson on drums.

The Musicians

Denny Zeitlin

Born in Chicago in 1938, Zeitlin’s parents both combined medicine and music. He began playing piano as a toddler, studied classical music initially and discovered jazz in high school as a natural extension of his interests in composition and improvisation. Soon he was playing professionally in the Chicago area, where he had opportunities to sit in with Joe Farrell, Wes Montgomery, and Ira Sullivan. He formally studied music in college, graduating from the University of Illinois in 1960 and then earning his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1964. After several highly acclaimed recordings for Concord, Zeitlin focused his musical efforts on fusing jazz, electronics, classical, and rock through the 1970s, leading to a number of recordings and the symphonic score for “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” in 1978. Refocusing on acoustic music, Zeitlin turned again to solo piano work and other projects, including composing for Sesame Street; appearing on network TV (the Tonight Show and CBS Sunday Morning); touring throughout the world at colleges, clubs, and major festivals; and performing with such jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Tony Williams, Marian McPartland, Charlie Haden, the Kronos Quartet, and Paul Winter.

Meanwhile, Zeitlin also established a private psychiatric practice in San Francisco and Marin County, and teaches at the University of California. Merging his background in music and psychiatry, Zeitlin has developed a lecture-demonstration, "Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation,” which has been well received in the U.S. and Europe. Wrote Jules Epstein, “[his] technical skills are abetted by his psychiatrist's understanding of spontaneity as a key to analysis—like the technique of ‘free association,’ Zeitlin approaches melody as a line to be coveted, addressed and focused on, but also as a point of departure. His particular skill is in departing without losing sight of the original thought.” High Fidelity noted, “he can rip the keyboard apart or coax the most delicate nuances from it with a virtuoso's assurance. And it is done not as showmanship, but as a means to a distinctly creative end.”

Buster Williams © Andrea Canter

Buster Williams needs no introduction to jazz fans, having toured in recent years with his stellar quartet, “Something More” as well as in the company of such luminaries as Kenny Barron. Among his current touring cohorts are George Colligan, Stefon Harrison, Jimmy Cobb, Al Foster, EJ Strickland, Chico Hamilton and more. One of the busiest bassists working today, Williams is admired for what the Penguin Guide describes as his “impeccable harmony” and “rhythmic sense that is unfailing, feeling, and utterly original.” His sets are always marked by his elegant and melodic lines, his ability to dazzle without calling attention to the effort.

One of the most in-demand, creative drummers of his generation, Matt Wilson has a wide range of musical tastes and experiences. After working in Boston with the Either/Orchestra, Charlie Kohlhase, and John Medeski, he relocated to New York. formed his own quartet and joined forces with such talents as Dewey Redman, Janis Siegal, Cecil McBee, Leni Stern, Fred Hersch, Michael Brecker, Ravi Coltrane, Lee Konitz, and Joanne Brackeen. These days Wilson tours with his acclaimed Arts and Crafts ensemble featuring Terell Stafford, Gary Versace and Martin Wind; his Quartet with Andrew D’Angelo, Jeff Lederer and Chris Lightcap, and performs with Ted Nash, Ted Rosenthal, Myra Melford and a long list of vocalists.

In Concert, On Record

Of his dual career, Denny Zeitlin notes that “I believe my most creative level of psychotherapy and musical expression occurs when I am able to trust that I will be able to bring to bear everything I have learned while simultaneously allowing myself to become “one” with the activity—to merge with the music, the musicians, or the patient and his psychological life.” Merging with the music and musicians, Zeitlin’s new CD releases give his “patients” a double dose of the cure by presenting the best of his past and present. In a three-volume set, the Mosaic Select Columbia Studio Trio Sessions provide a comprehensive overview of Zeitlin’s early career, covering the Cathexis sessions with Cecil McBee and Freddie Waits (March 1964), the Carnival sessions (October 1964) and Zeitgeist sessions (April 1966) with Charlie Haden and Jerry Granelli (October 1964), and the second set of Zeitgeist with Joe Halpin and Oliver Johnson (March 1967). Included is an hour’s worth of previously unreleased music from these sessions.

After some electronic experiments in the 1970s, Zeitlin returned to all-acoustic performances in solo, duo and trio formats, most notably beginning an association with Buster Williams and Al Foster in the late 90s. When Foster was unavailable for a tour in 2001, Zeitlin turned to rising star Matt Wilson, and the Zeitlin/Williams/Wilson ensemble has been touring and recording ever since. The Denny Zeitlin Trio In Concert, to be released on Sunnyside, covers three live sessions, two recorded at Los Angeles’ famed Jazz Bakery, the other from New Mexico’s Outpost Performance Space, and covers original compositions (from Zeitlin andWilliams) as well as interpretations of Coltrane and Cole Porter.

For a cover charge that runs at about 25% of the usual fee for an hour of therapy, you won’t find a better session with a psychiatrist! Catch Dr. Zeitlin and this remarkable trio when they hold office hours at Dizzy’s at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, March 10-11.

Dizzy’s is located at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Sets at 7:30 and 9:30 pm. For tickets and information, Call 212-258-9595 or visit http://www.jalc.org/dccc/.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites