JazzWax

Documentary: Picasso Love, and Art

If you're ever a contestant on TV's Jeopardy and the category is JazzWax, one of the answers may be "The only weekday date in 13 years when a post did not appear." The correct question would be, "What is March 22, 2021." Apologies to my readers. I was under the weather yesterday and posting the night before was impossible. So you had two days of John Pizzarelli's tribute to Pat Metheny, which isn't a bad thing.

Today, I in the spirit of jazz, I offer you a wonderful BBC documentary on Picasso and his loves and art. Directed by Hughes Nancy, the hour-long film aired in 2017, with narration by English actress Rebecca Gethings. Here's Picasso Love, and Art...

John Pizzarelli Plays Pat Metheny

This album shouldn't work. One superb artist recording the music of another usually happens many years after the subject has passed away. But John Pizzarelli's new album, Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny, works with tremendous success. It's as if John said to himself, "Why not?" And he's right. The idea of taking on Metheny's compositions and doing so solo is about as beautiful a tribute as one can imagine. Add the fact that John is a monster guitarist and you have an album that is pure splendor.

Metheny, of course, has always been a fascinating mix of styles and influences. Best known for his post-fusion albums Letter From Home, Still Life (Talking), Imaginary Day, Speaking of Now and The Way Up, the guitarist spent his early years listening to Wes Montgomery before heeding Ornette Coleman's musical call on his late 1960s albums to stand out by exploring new territory. Metheny lived in Brazil in the 1970s, a rhythmic and melodic experience that rubbed off. But you can also hear Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and many other Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters in the sailing quality of his music as well as rock influences. No wonder Metheny has 20 Grammys and is the only artist to have won Grammys in 10 different categories. [Photo above of Pat Metheny courtesy of Pat Metheny]

John Pizzarelli captures all of the poetry and moodiness of Metheny's music, from the smooth-jazz introspection to the samba-jazz fusion. But these aren't covers, per se. John interprets the music with the same textured mindset as Metheny. He understands Metheny's adventuresome passion and the complex chord voicings, contrapuntal tones and figures that make Metheny so special. In other words, he hears what Metheny heard when recording them. Best of all, John is gentle and lyrical and able to work inside the music with his electrified acoustic guitar, allowing the songs to breathe and flare. John chose Better Days Ahead, Spring Ain't Here, April Wind/Phase Dance, September Fifteenth, James, Antonia, (It's Just) Talk, Letter From Home, If I Could, Last Train Home, From This Place, The Bat and Farmer's Trust. [Photo above of John Pizzarelli courtesy of John Pizzarelli]

For me, Metheny (and John's interpretations) are transporting. I don't know why, but Metheny's songs have always reminded me of my college years in Boston. I'm not sure why, since I was there 10 years before Metheny's '80s albums. In John's hands, the music also makes me feel wistful, as if the semester is about to start and I have to head off to the bookstore.

Perhaps it's the music's mellow ease and ambition all rolled into one expression or John's brilliant channeling of Metheny's eager storytelling style. All I know is that after listening to the album for the 10th time yesterday, I had an urge to walk Boston's Commonwealth Avenue and hook into the Back Bay section to Charles Street and Beacon Hill. John's new album is precious and will certainly hit you in interesting places. And it's great to hear that Metheny's catalog still has legs so many years later.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find John Pizzarelli's Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny (Ghostlight) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's John Pizzarelli playing Better Days Ahead...

Here's Antonia...

And here's Spring Ain't Here...

Video: Bill Evans, Seattle 1978

One night in Seattle in 1977, two guys named Bill Evans went out for dinner. One was the jazz pianist and the other the modern dancer. Bill Evans the dancer was prominent in the Northwest and making a name for his dance company nationwide. He first danced professionally in 1966 and formed the Bill Evans Solo Dance Repertory in 1970. Four years later he formed the Bill Evans Dance Company. Over the course of his career, he choreographed more than 250 works, a number of which with jazz musicians. Two of these works were with pianist Bill Evans.

Their little-known collaboration began after the pianist played a gig at Parnell's, a famously cozy Seattle jazz club founded by Roy Parnell. After the performance, the dancer went backstage and invited the pianist out for a meal. At the restaurant, the dancer told the pianist that people had often come to his "Bill Evans In Concert" shows in various cities expecting to hear the trio, not to see modern dance. [Photo above of Roy Parnell]

They laughed and then learned they both defined good technique as getting the biggest reward from the smallest expenditure of muscular energy. That evening, they decided to collaborate and did so twice—in 1978 and 1979. The first event, Double Bill, took place on March 17 and 18, 1978, at Meany Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle. According to notes from the dancer that appeared with the recent YouTube post of the performance, the work ran about 45 minutes and included several other Bill Evans compositions in addition to Waltz for Debby and Peace Piece. [Photo above of dancer Bill Evans]

The dancer continued:

I know that we danced to "Waltz for Debby." Bill brought bassist Michael Moore and drummer Philly Jo Jones. We performed together again in 1979, also at Meany Hall. This time, we repeated "Double Bill" and added another 45-minute piece called "Mixin' It Up." The new piece was choreographed to Bill's recordings of jazz classics by other composers, including "Nardis," "Sweet and Lovely," "How Deep Is The Ocean," "Hi-Lilli Hi-Lo "and other pieces, as well as an improvisation by his sidemen then—bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Reviews for both shows were overwhelmingly positive. We sold out the theatre for all performances. Working with Bill was one of the highlights of my performing career.

Here's the video of the 1978 performance, which seems to have been taped by an audience member but still affords us a look at Bill Evans the pianist accompanying Bill Evans the dancer and his dance company, and how the pianist altered his playing to fit the dancers' needs...

A special thanks to Dave Thompson and Rob Rijneke in the Netherlands.