[Dixielandjazz] Simplicity in Jazz Standards

[Stephen G Barbone]

Pianist David Berkman is a very modern jazz pianist. Yet in his new  
album, he goes back to the oft played jazz standards of the American  
Songbook. Here's a NY Times review of his latest album. Plus a link to  
the in chorus of his take on  "Embraceable You"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdT4SBuG64c

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

Simplicity in Jazz Standards - David Berkman
by Ben Ratliff - NY Times - Feb 19, 2012

The pianist David Berkman’s “Self-Portrait” (Red Piano Records),  
released just before the new year, is a solo-piano record working  
through some of the most-often-played jazz repertory (“Embraceable  
You,” “But Not for Me,” “It Could Happen to You” and, the big one,  
“Body and Soul”), some of the less-played jazz repertory (Joe  
Henderson’s “Serenity,” Alec Wilder’s “Moon and Sand”) and a few short  
originals that he calls “Sketches.” It’s quiet, very melodic and  
introverted, changing tempo nearly all the time, leaning on subtleties  
of shifting left-hand harmonies. These days records like this may be  
more worth your time than ever. There’s so much working against their  
existence (Who wants another one? What more has to be proved about  
these songs? Isn’t this what a pianist should do in private?) that  
they have to be interesting. They’ve got to address the most basic  
questions of improvising, let go of various notions of what is proper  
or good enough, never rely on thoughtless style or thoughtless  
transgression, and make you think about something other than the songs  
themselves, because presumably you’ve thought enough about them  
already. The standout, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a four-and-a-half  
minute “Body and Soul,” a song whose many chord changes and history of  
achievement keeps pushing improvisers. The track begins with a  
complete blank-slate, one-handed free melodic improvisation with only  
the most indirect connection to “Body and Soul,” with various bop  
phrases coursing through it and disappearing; after three minutes of  
this you hear the first phrase of the song itself, which, after a  
slight pause, Mr. Berkman has an implicit obligation to connect  
retroactively, via phrasing and mood, with all that he has played up  
to this point. He does and he doesn’t. It’s casual and serene and  
risks total failure. There’s much to be said for that attitude."


Here is Berkman on the in chorus of "Embraceable You."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdT4SBuG64c



Cheers,

Steve Barbone

www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband