About five years ago, when one talked of pianists, time after time one heard, "But you got to hear Charlap," Of course the listening world was just catching up, Bill Charlap had been around quite a while and playing great. Since then, as expected, his career has taken off; he has regular gigs at the Village Vanguard, the Lincoln Center Penthouse, and the other best places, and he now has a Blue Note recording contract. Two CD's have appeared on Blue Note, the first, "Written in the Stars," in 2000 to excellent reviews. The second, "Stardust," will be released later in April, but I have heard an advance copy and it's excellent.
Perhaps an affinity for the American popular songbook is in his blood - he is the son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart. Whatever the reason, he is the master of this genre and regularly pulls obscure but beautiful songs out of some magical hat. Besides Kern, Porter, Rogers, the Gershwins, and the rest, one also hears the great jazz composers: Ellington, Strayhorn, and Monk of course, but also Gillespie, Gigi Gryce, and Mulligan. And there is always something you have never heard - and after hearing it, you wonder why not.
Bill has played with the Phil Woods quintet since 1995, though much of his work these days is as a soloist, in a duo, or the classic piano/drums/bass jazz trio. His current trio is the basis of his two Blue Note CDs, and consists of Kenny Washington on drums and Peter Washington on bass. It is well on its way to being one of the classic trios of our time, up there with Tommy Flanagan/Peter Washington/Lewis Nash, Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley, and Brad Mehldau/Jorge Rosse/Larry Grenadier. Much of the Charlap trio and duo work is quiet - soft. But don't confuse playing soft or "pretty" with lack of substance. As the New Yorker used to say of the late and much lamented Bradley's, the greatest jazz room in the world, "it's so quiet you can hear the sound of musicians thinking." You can always hear these guys thinking.
He sustains the duo and trio contexts beautifully, giving lots of room to his collaborators. It's not easy to be at the front and an accompanist at the same time, but he can do it. You might listen to his duo CDs with Warren Vache (cornet/flugelhorn) or Jon Gordon (alto/soprano saxophone). I prefer the work with Gordon because I think so highly of this young altoist, but the last two tracks on the Vache CD, "Prelude to a Kiss" and "St. Louis Blues," are nothing short of brilliant. One of the things I love about jazz is that it is a music that takes account of its history, and one in which historical comments can be made in real time. The technique is the quote, and quotes can be humorous, sad, or just comments that the other musicians may want to pick up on, making their own musical remarks in return. In the Ellington piece, Bill quotes early on from Monk's introduction to "Round Midnight." One can't tell at the start of the quote whether Charlap is repeating the melody or going elsewhere. There is a wonderful "aha!" when you recognize that what you suspected was to be another take on the melody is in fact something else indeed. And to juxtapose Monk and Ellington is completely appropriate, a reminder of the affinity the works of those greatest of jazz composers have. In the W. C. Handy piece, he also quotes, this time from Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood." Parker's Mood was one of the tunes set to lyrics by Clarence Beeks (aka King Pleasure), and the musical phrase in question, goes, in Beeks' words, "Come with me, if you want to go to Kansas City." I don't know if Charlap had the "two cities" combination in mind, or the notion that Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, but I wouldn't be surprised.
There is another, more "out" side to Charlap that seems to emerge when he is co-leader - as in the duets with Jon Gordon - or plays as a sideman. Listen, for example to his work on "Hieroglyphica," Conrad Herwig's CD on Criss Cross. Or check out the Jon Gordon CD, "Ask Me Now," also on Criss Cross. He can play pretty with the best of them, but also burn.
Hearing Bill Charlap live is always is a treat and sometimes memorable. I recall a Sunday night at the Vanguard about a year ago when the trio had been playing together all week, and and the room was filled with musicians (Bobby Short, Fred Hersch, Barbara Carroll, Sean Smith, probably others as well). The second set in particular was fabulous. And there was a night last January at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, New Jersey when the Charlap-Gordon duo was just outstanding - Gordon gorgeous and Charlap playing all sorts of Monkish clonks and bangs. We can't promise to match those evenings, but you never know....
We are lucky to have Sean Smith as the bassist. He is a long-time associate of Bill Charlap; they appear on each other's CDs and often work together. Like Charlap, Sean Smith is a renowned accompanist of vocalists (Peggy Lee, Carol Sloan, Mark Murphy among others). That kind of experience seems to make for thoughtful playing and to translate somehow into outstanding bandleading. Tommy Flanagan played for years with Ella Fitzgerald, for example, and legions of today's best pianists and bassists graduated from "Betty Carter University," the Jazz equivalent of Harvard.
Unlike Charlap, Smith spends much of his efforts on composition, and we are likely to hear some of his tunes in September. His working quartet, in which Bill Charlap often appears, contains another fine young alto player, Allen Mezquida, and very often features Smith's work. It's by no means easy to sustain a full evening or CD of original compositions - one is competing in a way with all the giants of the past, and that's no simple task. It's a mark of Smith's compositional skill that he sustains this effort so well, and that his tunes are used often by other musicians. In an interview with Janet Sommer, Smith talked about composing:* "...I've done quite a bit of writing, mostly because I've wanted to, and because I was called to do it, you could say. I enjoy the creative process, even if the tune that I've ended up with isn't some kind of great tune, I've learned something during that time, I've completed something in that time, and I was also able to enjoy that creative process that we were talking about." You could write those same wise words about any creative endeavor - chemistry, perhaps.
Discography - these are just a few CDs I have and like. There are many others.
Current Bill Charlap Trio [B. Charlap - P. Washington - K. Washington]
Stardust, Blue Note, 7243535985 (April 2002)
Written in the Stars, Blue Note 7243527291
All Through the Night, Criss Cross 1153
Conrad Herwig Quartet: [Herwig (tb), Charlap, James Genus (b), Gene Jackson (d)]
Hieroglyphica, Criss Cross 1207
Jon Gordon Quintet: [Tim Hagens (tp), Charlap,Larry Grenadier (b),Billy Drummond(d)]
Ask Me Now, Criss Cross 1099
Jon Gordon - Bill Charlap Duo
Contrasts, Doubletime 185
Warren Vache - Bill Charlap Duo
2Gether, Nagel Heyer 2011
Sean Smith Quartet [Mezquida, Russell Meisner (d), Charlap (p) or Keith Ganz (g)]
Poise, Ambient 002
Sean Smith Quartet [Charlap, Mezquida, Ron Vincent (d)]
Sean Smith Quartet Live, Chiaroscuro
Gene Bertoncini Trio [Bertoncini (g), Smith, Charlap]
Gene Bertoncini, Chiaroscuro
Mark Murphy
Some Time Ago, Highnote
Carol Sloan
Ballad Essentials, Concord