Beginning with the 2014 edition of his annual solo concert at Oakland, California’s Piedmont Piano showroom, pianist Denny Zeitlin has used the occasion to delve into the work of a single composer. In 2018, it was time to investigate the compositions of George Gershwin. As he told journalist Jesse Hamlin before the show “It’s hard to imagine better springboards into improvisation. They also lend themselves gracefully to re-harmonization, which attracts musicians who like to put their own stamp on a tune and stay with it at the same time.” If you think he’s including himself when he mentions “musicians,” you would be completely accurate. Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin is a wonderful survey that offers deeply personal reimaginings of familiar tunes like The Man I Love and Summertime. As well-known as these songs still are after so many years and countless performances, Zeitlin’s reinventions make them new all over again. The most obscure composition is By Strauss, originally a piece played for comedic effect at parties and later adapted for a scene in An American In Paris. Zeitlin plays it slowly and compassionately, in a way that emphasizes its graceful melody. Among the many other high points of this set are a breakneck romp through S’Wonderful, an appropriately moody extended version of My Man’s Gone Now, and a marvelously complex jaunt through Fascinating Rhythm. In his short liner essay, Zeitlin, who heard much of Gershwin’s music as a child, mentions that the Miles Davis version of My Man’s Gone Now, as arranged by Gil Evans, “affected me deeply in my college years.” That would mean that Zeitlin, now 83 years young, very likely heard this famous rendition around the time that the Davis/Evans Porgy And Bess album was released in March, 1959. That’s given him a lifetime to ruminate on these songs and absorb their nuances. The audience in Oakland, and now listeners at home, are the clear beneficiaries of this long acquaintance, now immortalized on this thoroughly delightful CD. Highest recommendation!
Sunnyside SSC 1693; Denny Zeitlin (p); Oakland, CA, December 7, 2018; Summertime/ How Long Has This Been Going On?/ S’Wonderful/ Bess You is My Woman Now/ It Ain’t Necessarily So/ By Strauss/ The Man I Love/ My Man’s Gone Now/ I’ve Got a Crush on You/ Fascinating Rhythm/ I Was Doing All Right; 68:33. www.sunnysiderecords.com
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