Denny Zeitlin • Live at Mezzrow
 eteran California
pianist Denny Zeitlin assembled a trio with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt
Wilson in 2001, and they’ve convened periodically ever since. The band has a
distinctive dynamic, an extension of the leader’s mercurial piano style. The music
varies between extremes: thin/thick textures; skeletal/fat harmonies; quiet to thunder;
see-sawing between swing time and more open or rubato time.
The trio is at their best, on this recording and others, when they really rip. Take Billy Strayhorn’s "Intimacy of the Blues." After a very brief intro, the 12-bar frame steams along briskly, Matt Wilson playing a pot-stirring shuffle, brushes on snare. Zeitlin puts some bounce in the first chorus, then switches to tremolo chords as bass takes the melodic role for the second, Zeitlin warming up on the last few bars to set up his piano solo: snaky single-note lines with light left-hand accompaniment, eruptions into swirly chromatic runs from both hands in unison, a few spare, bluesy licks for relief, and an improvised melody sounded by the top notes in a sequence of chords. Nothing new in any of that, but he mixes tactics well, in an action-packed four minutes. The recording puts you right in a good seat in this small West Village club: You hear the rustle of folks settling in at the beginning of a tune, and the guy at a front table compelled to pithily comment on a just-concluded number. The piano sounds close-miked, like you’re hovering just above the strings. (Glen Forrest and Colin Mohnacs did the recording "in tight quarters," per Zeitlin; the leader and Vadim Canby mixed and mastered.) But sound quality is about the sound that’s captured as well as how it’s captured. For better or worse -- not like they had much choice -- the recordists accurately render Buster Williams’s heavily amplified bass. Williams has a great groove, and good intonation, and he elegantly weaves his way through the harmonies. But like one or two other longtime bassists, he uses a setup harking back to the 1970s, when bass amplification became prevalent/problematic. (The credits duly note his Fishman pickup and Acoustic Image amp.) His amped tone is thick and slabby -- you hear the pitch, not the wood -- and his attack can be a little clanky or burpy when he asserts himself. There are, to be fair, moments when he exploits the seemingly infinite sustain, and the reduced string tension that amplification allows -- though he never stoops to that low-action cliché, mandolin-speed "motor-boating" in the upper register. You don’t often hear a band where the drummer may be least loud in the mix, but in this case it’s not so unrealistic. Matt Wilson is a listener, not a basher, always responsive, never on autopilot, and with a sensitive touch to get a tuneful sound from the tubs. He and Williams are quick to react to/mirror the pianist’s variable dynamics, and each hears where the other is going -- less a matter of telepathy than their shared experience. On Strayhorn’s "Star-Crossed Lovers," the bassist and drummer manage the tricky task of swinging at a slow tempo, resisting temptation to leap into double time. (The trio also plays Strayhorn’s ballad "Isfahan.") It’s nice, but there are caveats. As mentioned, the
trio will shift between swinging and out-of-tempo episodes, and sometimes -- notably on a
12-minute take of Wayne Shorter’s "Paraphernalia" -- I yearn for more of
the former. (In the time-playing there, Wilson slips into a Tony Williams rock beat, a nod
to the original Miles in the Sky version.) Most arrangements sound worked out in
the moment, but a little structure can help. One standout is Monk’s "I Mean
You," where some of the entrances and exits/textural variations -- like a duo
piano/bass chorus early on, where drums play only on the bridge -- sound pre-plotted.
Zeitlin paraphrases the melody a bit -- it’s okay, we have plenty of Monk played
straight -- and forgoes the composer’s signature splanky chords; a little Lennie
Tristano comes out in fast low-register runs. Wilson adds a skipping-down-the-sidewalk
rhythmic feel. You can hear why these busy players make time for this trio: they’re
having audible fun. |
