Heart To Heart: Solo Piano (Chilly Bin Records)
Alan Broadbent
Released May 21, 2013
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qOsqFnezCwA&list=OLAK5uy_m8su2226ebYbhB8YDmF7LEgd1yFmY8W1Y
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0SzgBhprEK4qVSBmFClwSE?si=nO977D4fQr-pVqMMTIE6hg
About:
2-time Grammy Award winning jazz pianist, composer and arranger Alan Broadbent has long been a major force behind the scenes in jazz, whether it was accompanying Irene Kral on some of the most exquisite vocal albums ever recorded, contributing arrangements to Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Jane Monheit and Sir Paul McCartney or playing piano for Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.
14 CD‘s released under his own name are proof that he is not only working in the background. 4 of his own recordings earned Grammy Nominations, „Best Improvised Jazz Solo” in 2010, 2006 and 2005 and „Best Composition” in the year 1997.
Alan has just been mentioned in the French magazine “JAZZMAN” as having given the best concert of the year 2012 for his solo jazz piano performance at the St. Emilion Jazz Festival.
It’s now 22 years ago that Alan recorded his first solo jazz piano album “Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 14” and as it has been the only one so far, it is time for the successor called “Heart to Heart”.
Track Listing:
1. Hello My Lovely (Charlie Haden) 6:58
2. Heart to Heart (Alan Broadbent) 5:07
3. Alone Together (Arthur Schwartz) 5:46
4. Now and Then (Alan Broadbent) 6:08
5. Journey Home (Alan Broadbent) 6:21
6. Blue in Green (Bill Evans, Miles Davis) 10:19
7. Love Is the Thing (Alan Broadbent) 5:52
8. Lonely Woman (Ornette Coleman) 10:50
9. Cherokee (Ray Noble) 3:49
Personnel:
Alan Broadbent: piano
Recorded live on August 28, 2012, at Classic Pianos, Portland, Oregon
Review:
To a journeyman pianist, an entire album of solo playing is a challenge to fill with worthy music. To a master like Alan Broadbent, the format is a devotional, an exhibition and a playground. Like few other practicing keyboardists, Broadbent’s playing on this tour de force truly fulfills the potential of the instrument as an orchestra in a box. Lennie Tristano’s eponymous solo album for Atlantic is an obvious reference for Heart To Heart. Broadbent’s spidery left hand keeps metronomic time as the foundation for Charlie Haden’s “Hello My Lovely” and the title track, a clever, rubato variation of “Body And Soul.” But Broadbent has a lyrical flow that is seldom heard in Tristano, whose dark left-hand forests weren’t sprinkled with right-hand sunshine like Broadbent’s. Bill Evans is another touchstone. Broadbent’s rhapsodic flourishes on the bridge to “Love Is The Thing” (based on “What Is This Thing”) are breathtaking. The “Blue In Green” essayed here is far dreamier—in a Bernard Herrmann way—than Evans ever played. Broadbent’s two-hand dynamics are fascinating: An out-of-tempo right hand, contrary motion, spontaneous counterpoint and parallel lines can be heard throughout this Portland recital from 2012. The left-handed pulse may deal out straight-time or play hide-and-seek with the beat. And the bass chords take over the melody for a time while the treble chords accompany, as on “Alone Together.” Emotion is always at the surface of a Broadbent performance, but Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” positively drips with it. The tune operates in a minor chord fog and goes through several permutations to create a small masterpiece for form. The album caps off with a dazzling, high-velocity romp through “Cherokee.” Broadbent tips his hat to Bud Powell and then waves goodbye, as all artists should do to their heroes.
Kirk Silsbee (DownBeat)
