Artist: Richie Beirach
Album: Maybeck Recital Hall Series • Volume Nineteen
Genre: Post-Bop
Label: Concord Jazz
Released: 1992
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
- Introductory Announcement 00:14
- All the Things You Are (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) 03:44
- On Green Dolphin Street (Bronislaw Kaper, Ned Washington) 04:07
- Some Other Time (Bronislaw Kaper, Ned Washington) 07:42
- You Don't Know What Love Is (Gene DePaul, Don Raye) 06:42
- Spring Is Here (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) 03:54
- All Blues (Miles Davis, Oscar Brown Jr.) 04:10
- Medley (Various) 06:03
- Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen, E. Y. Harburg)
- Small World (Jule Styne, Stepen Sondheim)
- In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (Bob Hilliard, David Mann)
- 'Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams, Bernhard Hanighen) 06:10
- Remember (Irving Berlin) 04:56
- Elm (Richie Beirach) 08:12
DOWNLOAD FROM FILECAT.NET >>>
More than just a concert recording, Beirach's performance at Maybeck is a snapshot of the artist in a moment of creation. Not yet an elder statesman, but no longer a newcomer to the world of jazz, Beirach stands now at a plateau, from which he can look back on the traditions that defined his early development - the textural genius of Miles Davis, the technical rigors of European classical repertoire, the probing harmonic imagination of Bill Evans - while also mapping the horizons of his own distinctive style.
From the opening notes of All The Things You Are, his method is clear: Whether playing standards, original tunes, or free improvisations, Beirach considers the essential structure of each piece much as a chess player ponders the positions of his pieces. Where can this phrase lead? How can this chord be expanded in a way to suggest different perspectives on a well-known theme? On the next cut, On Green Dolphin Street, the same approach applies, though here the question involves expansions of the melodic concept over an intentionally spare harmonic base: With the left hand restricted to playing two notes, an open fifth, how far can the right hand stretch without disrupting the implied chord changes? Answer: In Beirach's hands, far.
Each cut on this album offers, in its own way, another lesson on how a profound musical intellect can transform well-known material into fresh and highly personal artistic statements. All Blues swings with a vengeance, Some Other Time eulogizes the classic Bill Evans interpretation, Spring Is Here brilliantly amplifies the harmonic suggestion of the motif, and Elm is a feather in the air, breathlessly suspended.
Yet all of it bears Richie Beirach's imprimatur - passion tempered by discipline, exhaustive analysis in order to give the seeds of his inspiration their most fertile settings. More than most pianists, Beirach has mastered these paradoxical aspects of creativity. That they survive on this album is his credit, and our good fortune.
Robert L. Doerschuk