Uptown, Downtown (Impulse)
Bill Charlap Trio
Released September 8, 2017
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2018
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lNpH4YN0daJyRXOOWbtdD4z-XIAo6nnjs
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/5sLAAuNixDNK7b91imiLfM?si=w17j8l7uSEqOyCMLcaxLyw&dl_branch=1
About:
Pianist Bill Charlap in a hell of a trio – working here with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington – both players who make the record bristle with fresh energy right from the start! Charlap’s command of tone and timing are as wonderful here as on other records – already a great enough start in itself – but Kenny’s well-paced work on drums, and those warmly-crafted lines on bass from Peter make the whole album a real treat – almost back to the kinds of surprising moments that both Washingtons brought to trio dates back in the 90s. If you’re a Charlap fan, don’t worry – Bill’s style is very firmly in the lead here – but if you’re looking for something extra, too, you’ll definitely find it here – on titles that include “Satellite”, “There’s A Small Hotel”, “I’m All Smiles”, “Uptown Downtown”, “Curtains”, and “Bon Ami”.
Track Listing:
1. Curtains (Gerry Mulligan) 7:00
2. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most (Tommy Wolf / Fran Landesman) 7:55
3. Uptown, Downtown (Stephen Sondheim) 6:00
4. The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else (Isham Jones / Gus Kahn) 5:01
5. I’m All Smiles (Michael Leonard / Herbert Martin) 7:28
6. There’s a Small Hotel (Richard Rodgers /Lorenzo Hart) 6:41
7. Satellite (Gigi Gryce) 4:19
8. Bon Ami (Jim Hall) 6:46
9. Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington / Irving Mills / Mitchell Parish) 3:16
Personnel:
Bill Charlap: piano
Peter Washington: bass
Kenny Washington: drums
Recorded March 13 – 16, 2017, at Avatar Studios, NY
Produced by Bill Charlap
Executive Producer: Farida Bachir
Recording and Mixing Engineer: James Farber
Assistant Recording Engineer: Luke Kligensmith
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Owen Mulholland
Mastering: Mark Wilder
Cover Photo: Carol Friedman
Review:
The Bill Charlap Trio, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, has now been together for 20 years. Their nine albums should go in a time capsule, to show future generations what a state-of-the-art mainstream piano trio sounded like around the turn of the 21st century. Charlap is an example of how style, at its most advanced, is not merely a set of identifying characteristics. It is an aesthetic destination, indivisible from substance.
He is occasionally criticized for being too conservative. On Uptown Downtown there is not a single original. But Charlap proves the validity of interpreting worthwhile tunes that already exist, especially neglected ones like Gerry Mulligan’s “Curtains,” Jim Hall’s “Bon Ami” and Stephen Sondheim’s title track. When he plays “The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else,” he traces the century-old melody in one long, unbroken single-note line. He renders its essence in a quick, seemingly effortless gesture, like Picasso with a pencil stroke. When he expands upon his source material, each note is precise as a pearl, and he streams fresh ideas that tie to a whole. Charlap thinks in well-proportioned finished forms.
In one respect his ensemble truly is conservative. Bill Evans opened the piano trio into a three-way interaction 60 years ago, but Charlap still prefers piano-plus-accompaniment. The two (unrelated) Washingtons rarely solo. But Peter plays some of the most supple, motivational basslines in jazz. He won’t let this trio not swing.
Charlap makes old songs relevant. “There’s a Small Hotel” is no longer quaint and sentimental. Its new melodic details stand on their own, independent of time. “Sophisticated Lady” is brief, loose and definitive. Charlap lingers over “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” for eight minutes, in hovering incomplete phrases and silences, followed by tentative resolutions. Fran Landesman’s wonderfully wry lyrics are absent, but the right pianist can go where vocalists can’t, to places without denotation, places of limitless elusive connotation.
Thomas Conrad (JazzTimes)
